INGENIEUR
Figure 4: Various jobs and positions in aviation and aerospace require professionalism.
attitudes. The CEO and COO of small/large
organisations should promote the importance of
human factors as a heartfelt message. When the
leadership has the knowledge and commitment, it
is reflected in the organisation. It is not supposed
to be a check-off of the regulatory requirements
but to emphasise value in ‘Human Factors’
programmes. Organisations are now realising that
‘Human Factors’ programmes are an important
piece of the Safety Management System (SMS).
Professionalism: Employees must be internally
motivated to “do the right thing”. This include
attitudes and behaviours on topics like
uncompromised compliance with company
procedures and technical documentation,
adherence to fitness for duty with particular
regard to the fatigue issue, sensitivity to culture,
workplace communication, and other behaviour
and performance issues. Again, like the safety
culture, professionalism is contagious.
Required inspection items: The topic of “required
inspection items” is an important challenge in
establishing responsible staff attitudes in the
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aviation and aerospace industry. The reason is
that many incidents in airlines, aerospace and
in general aviation are a result of incomplete
inspection. On a risk assessment, a missed
inspection is not always ranked as catastrophic,
but it is ranked as a frequent occurrence. The term
“required inspection” refers to procedures put in
place to stop workshop workers believing that the
tasks that require a double inspection should be
treated as normal and routine tasks.
Let’s look into the human factor context with
two recent fatal incidents of the Boeing 737 Max.
Dozens of pilots, engineers and experts were
asked about the 737 Max and its development,
roll out and the two crashes that have claimed the
lives of 346 people. What emerged was a story of
cascading failure – there were many small human
errors at every phase of the aircraft design,
certification and operation process. Those errors
came to a terrible and deadly climax in the skies
above the Java Sea in October 2018 and above
the Ethiopian countryside five months later.
Mistakes began nearly a decade ago when
Boeing was afraid of losing the narrow-body fleet
market after their arch-rival Airbus announced a