A Framework for Human Reliability in Aircraft Inspection

Maintaining civil aircraft air-worthiness requires the reliability of a complex, socio-technic system. This system's reliability is dependent on the reliability of its components (i.e, equipment, inspectors, the physical environment), and on how reliably these components interact. Error is the measurement counterpart of reliability, and most, if not all, errors can be classified at some stages as human errors. This paper uses the data collected from the task analyses of many inspection tasks (Shepherd, et al., 1991), and the human factors literature on human errors to derive an overall framework for error studies in inspection. This framework interprets the hangar-floor observations in terms of current theories of human error causation, and then uses this interpretation to list strategies for reducing or eliminating errors. The ultimate aim of this work is to ensure that data and theories of human error from other fields (e.g., nuclear power, chemical plants, transportation systems) can contribute to reducing the error potential of aviation maintenance and inspection.