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April 22, 2024
LACK OF AWARENESS | The Dirty Dozen: Common human error factors in aircraft maintenance mishaps

Working in isolation and only considering one’s own responsibilities can lead to tunnel vision, a partial view, and a lack of awareness of how our actions can affect others and the wider task. Such lack of awareness may also result from other human factors, such as stress, fatigue, pressure and
April 20, 2024
LACK OF ASSERTIVENESS | The Dirty Dozen: Common human error factors in aircraft maintenance mishaps

Being both unable to express our concerns and not allowing others to express their concerns creates ineffective communications and damages teamwork. Unassertive team members can be forced to go with a majority decision, even when they believe it is wrong and dangerous to do so.
April 1, 2024
FATIGUE | The Dirty Dozen: Common human error factors in aircraft maintenance mishaps

Fatigue is a natural physiological reaction to prolonged physical and/or mental stress. We can become fatigued following long periods of work and following periods of hard work. When fatigue becomes a chronic condition, it may require medical attention; but workers should never self-medicate! As we
March 1, 2024
LACK OF KNOWLEDGE | The Dirty Dozen: Common human error factors in aircraft maintenance mishaps

The regulatory requirements for training and qualification can be comprehensive, and organizations must enforce these requirements. Otherwise, lack of on-the-job experience and specific knowledge can lead workers into misjudging situations and making unsafe decisions. Aircraft systems are so complex
Feb. 28, 2024
Ground-breaking risk management initiative seeks to reduce aircraft maintenance mishaps

Since September 2018, aircraft maintenance-related mishaps cost Air Education and Training Command more than $50 million. These mishaps happened during high-risk maintenance tasks, to include engine operational checks and aircraft towing. Fiscal Year 2023 saw an alarming spike in these preventable
Feb. 1, 2024
COMPLACENCY | The Dirty Dozen: Common human error factors in aircraft maintenance mishaps

Complacency can be described as a feeling of familiarity with a task accompanied by a loss of awareness of potential dangers. Such a feeling often arises when conducting routine activities that have become habitual and which may be considered by an individual (sometimes by the whole organization) as
Jan. 3, 2024
LACK OF COMMUNICATION | The Dirty Dozen: Common human error factors in aircraft maintenance mishaps

Poor communication often appears at the top of contributing and causal factors in accident reports and is, therefore, one of the most critical human factor elements.
Dec. 1, 2023
LACK OF RESOURCES | The Dirty Dozen: Common human error factors in aircraft maintenance mishaps

If all the parts are not available to complete a maintenance task, then there may be pressure on a technician to complete the task using old or inappropriate parts. Regardless of the task, resources also include personnel, time, data, tools, skill, experience, knowledge, etc. A lack of any of these
Nov. 1, 2023
STRESS | The Dirty Dozen: Common human error factors in aircraft maintenance mishaps

There are many types of stress. Typically, in the aviation environment, there are two distinct types — acute and chronic. Acute stress arises from real-time demands placed on our senses, mental processing and physical body, such as dealing with an emergency or working under time pressure with
Oct. 2, 2023
PRESSURE | The Dirty Dozen: Common human error factors in aircraft maintenance mishaps

Pressure is to be expected when working in a dynamic environment, especially in combat. However, when the pressure to meet a deadline interferes with our ability to complete tasks correctly, then it has become too much. It is the old argument of quantity versus quality; and in aviation, we should

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