Human Factors

Human factor is defined as the study of the interaction between humans and their environment. Their environment would include the tools, equipment, instruments, systems and vehicles used to prepare to fly and what is used during flight. Passengers depend on the airlines to get them to their destination safe and they never think about how the employees of the airlines felt that day. If somebody has a bad week, how will their performance be when it comes to the job? Some people don’t know how to put their personal life separate from their work life. We are not robots and there is nobody on earth that is perfect. Even people who are instructors that teach the material to perform aviation duties, at times will fall under an action of what we call, human error. There isn’t a program or machine that will alert you of life situations that somebody is going through. And as much as technology is developing, we still need to be alert, awake, and dedicated to the job because many lives are involved.

Human error is something that even if worked hard to avoid will always be present. I believe that body language plays a huge part in the percentage of human error, but is not all to blame. Knowledge, training and memory can also add to the human error rate. In every job field teamwork is the key to success. If one person does not perform their job to the best of their ability and just does enough to get by, sooner or later some body or several people will become a victim to human error. In order for a puzzle to be complete every piece has to be put together, and there is no difference when it comes to the fact of completing a task. Human error is all around the job field, and without the help of others the rate will continue to go up. Technology is not the answer in detecting every malfunction. Mechanical problems, majority of the time yes technology can prevent a mishap, but not with the inner part of us humans. Everybody goes through an emotional state at some point in their lives, and everybody handles and copes different. The job may be the only way to get away from personal problems, but how can you perform your job at 100% with so much on your mind. You simply can’t! When you look at the affects of physiological, psychological, personality, psychosocial, and physical factors the same outcome has a high possibility, human error.