Human Factors and Accident reduction/mitigation

Thu Nov 5 14:20:25 UTC 2009

Regarding Reliability and Availability:

1.	Reliability and Availability are related, but not identical.
2.	Systemic availability is, generally, the result of the combination  
of component
	reliability, component redundancy, policies, procedures, and  
discipline.
3.	Policies, procedures, and discipline help to reduce and/or mitigate  
accidents.

In terms of accidents and human factors:

1.	Accidents cannot be eliminated, but, with proper procedures,  
policies, and
	disciplines, most can be eliminated or prevented.

2.	Most accidents which cannot be eliminated can be mitigated, but,  
doing so
	often comes at a cost which exceeds the product of benefit and  
likelihood.

We could learn a lot about this from Aviation.  Nowhere in human  
history has
more research, care, training, and discipline been applied to accident  
prevention,
mitigation, and analysis as in aviation.  A few examples:

	NTSB investigations of EVERY US aircraft accident and published  
findings.
	NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System

	When NTSB finds a design flaw in an aircraft at fault for an accident  
there
	is a process by which that error gets translated into an  
Airworthiness Directive
	forcing aircraft owners to have the flaw corrected to continue  
operating the
	aircraft.

	When NTSB finds a training discrepancy, procedural problem, etc., there
	is a process by which those discrepancies are addressed.through  
training,
	retraining, etc.

	For example, after a couple of accidents related to microbursts, NTSB  
and
	FAA determined that all pilots should undergo training on windshear and
	windshear avoidance, including microburts.

	etc.  (There are many more examples)

Owen