Simulation and Analysis of Class A and B TACAIR Flight Mishaps with an Assessment of Human Factors Intervention

The increasing mechanical reliability of Naval Aviation (NA) aircraft has made human error (HE) the leading cause of Class A and B flight mishaps. To increase understanding of the underlying causes of HE, the Naval Safety Center in Norfolk, VA, developed the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS). The HEACS taxonomy consists of 17 types of basic HE. This HEACS taxonomy has been used as a data analysis tool to classify 141 Class A and B naval Tactical Aircraft (TACAIR) flight mishaps (FM) from fiscal year (FY) 90 to FY97. The study shows an important relationship between Adverse Mental State and 12 of the 17 HE types in the HEACS taxonomy. Significantly, when one of these 12 HE types is cited in an FM, greater than 70 percent of the time, Adverse Mental State is also cited as a co-causal factor in the mishap. Two other HE types have this 70 percent co-causal factor relationship with 3 of the 17 HE types. Adverse Mental State has an important relationship to the majority of the HE types in the HEACS taxonomy, compared with other HE types. For this reason, Adverse Mental State merits further investigation and should be considered in the development of HE prevention programs for Naval Aviators.Naval Postgraduate School Monterey CA is the author of 'Simulation and Analysis of Class A and B TACAIR Flight Mishaps with an Assessment of Human Factors Intervention', published 1999 under ISBN 9781423542308 and ISBN 1423542304.