Ground damage incidents (incidents in which airline personnel cause damage
to an aircraft on the ground) occur as airline personnel are working on, or
around, an aircraft on the ground, either on the ramp or at a maintenance
facility. Each incident can be quite costly to the airline, with costs both
tangible (repair costs and lost revenue) and intangible (passenger inconve
nience, increased maintenance workload). Thus, airlines have a financial in
centive to reduce the number of ground damage incidents that occur. One of
the airline's most difficult tasks has been to utilize the information coll
ected in their existing error reporting systems to determine the common lat
ent failures which contribute to typical ground damage incidents. In this s
tudy, 130 ground damage incidents from a major airline were reviewed to det
ermine the active and latent failures. Twelve distinct hazard patterns (rep
resenting the active failures) were identified, with three hazard patterns
accounting for 81% of all ground damage incidents. Nine major latent failur
es were identified, and the relationships between the hazard patterns and l
atent failures were examined in depth. This type of analysis allows the lat
ent failures common to different hazard patterns to be identified, and prov
ides a means for developing focused intervention strategies to prevent futu
re ground damage.
Relevance to industry
Airlines have generally had a difficult time analyzing reports of human err
or to make improvements in their maintenance systems. This study provides a
methodology that allows reports of human error to be analyzed, and interve
ntions developed based on the results of the analysis. The methodology woul
d also be applicable to, and useful in, other industries. (C) 2000 Elsevier
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