Analyzing human error in aircraft ground damage incidents

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 Science B.V. All rights reserved.