Human error and general aviation accidents

de Douglas A. Wiegmann

The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) is a theoretically based tool for investigating and analyzing human error associated with accidents and incidents. Previous research performed at both the University of Illinois and the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute has successfully shown that HFACS can be reliably used to analyze the underlying human causes of both commercial and general aviation (GA) accidents. These analyses have helped identify general trends in the types of human factors issues and aircrew errors that have contributed to civil aviation accidents. The next step was to identify the exact nature of the human errors identified. The purpose of this research effort therefore, was to address these questions by performing a fine-grained HFACS analysis of the individual human causal factors associated with GA accidents and to assist in the generation of intervention programs. This report details those findings and offers an approach for developing interventions to address them.