Aviation and Human Factors

Air safety is right now at a point where the chances of being killed in an aviation accident are far lower than the chances to winning a jackpot in any of the major lotteries. However, keeping or improving that performance level requires a critical analysis of some events that, despite scarce, point to structural failures in the learning process. The effect of these failures could increase soon if there is not a clear and right development path. This book tries to identify what is wrong, why there are things to fix, and some human factors principles to keep in aircraft design and operations. Features Shows, through different events, how the system learns through technology, practices, and regulations and the pitfalls of that learning process Discusses the use of information technology in safety-critical environments and why procedural knowledge is not enough Presents air safety management as a successful process, but at the same time, failures coming from technological and organizational features are shown Offers ways to improve from the human factors side by getting the right lessons from recent events