Nouman Nadeem Hashmi

Reg # 110101019
Aero-10
nnh1203@yahoo.com

Human Factors in Engineering

Assignment # 1
Accidents due to equipment failures are now thought to constitute just three
to five percent of all airline accidents. The remaining accidents are
attributable solely to human error. Of the accidents attributed to human
error, nearly three quarters of them are due to poor human
communication. Aircraft crews are highly structured, mechanistic groups
known to be capable of failures of communication and decision-making.
Mechanistic groups typically perform very well as long as the tasks are fairly
predictable and routine. However, during crisis (stress) situations, these
trained responses tend to break down, .i.e. under stress the
communication gap increases. Nowhere is this more evident than in the
air transportation industry.

Factors affecting communication

A few of them include

Cultural dynamics An awareness of cultural norms is crucial for

successful communication.
Differences in learning
Environmental conditions
noise
stress
time
obstacles
Disabilities
Individual perceptions
Lack of feedback etc

Solutions to avoid communication gap

A few recommendations to improve communication are given below;

Read back Procedures

ATC Procedures, such as read-back, have been introduced to minimize
mis-communications between the pilot and ATC. However, such ATC
procedures do not lead to the elimination of the problem (as is
indicated by its persistent occurrence) but merely seeks to mitigate its
effect - meaning that a significant percentage of certain types of
incidents will continue to occur. Essentially, Read-back procedures
attempt to recover from incorrect communications, but are not always
successful.

Use of Checklists

Captains to be receptive to challenges

Airlines must require captains to be receptive to challenges from copilots and further require that the co-pilots have sufficient experience
to be able to challenge the captains. It will most likely take a long time
for these regulations to impact on the human factors which they are
trying to address.

Communication Training
There have been numerous calls for communication training, both as
an independent effort and as part of Crew Resource Management
(CRM) for flight crews and for flight attendants. Flight and cabin crew,
while a critical part of the aviation environment, should not be the only
focus of communication training as part of an aviation safety training
program. Flight Safety Foundation (2000) notes that training programs
should include special emphasis on pilot controller communication.
This training should include interpersonal communication, listening
skills, decision-making skills, and conflict management etc.
Further the situations can be improved by establishing precise crew
coordination, promoting equal workloads and clear distribution of
duties, and maintaining strict adherence to phraseology inside and
outside the cockpit.

Stress Training

As stated earlier that under crisis situations there are much chances of
communication failure thus the crew training must also undergo stress
management as part of crew resource management. In 1988, a panel
of experts, mostly psychologists after a study established that if crews
are made conscious of their vulnerability (through training) they can
generally overcome the effects of stress.