The relationship between flight operations and organizations in aircraft incidents in 21st century: The application of human factors analysis and classification system

Throughout the history of aviation, many models have been put forward in order to examine the human factors in the aviation accidents. The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS), which is the most widely used in the literature was introduced by Shappell and Wiegmann in 2000. The HFACS is based on Reason's Swiss Cheese Model. The biggest disadvantage of the Reason's model is its post-accident applicability. This is a reagent (result-focused) approach. In this study, however, the HFACS which is improved version of Reason's model, was applied to aviation incidents, instead of accidents. This approach is a proactive approach. Thus, with this approach, the biggest disadvantage of the Reason's model is turned to advantage. In addition, a realistic approach has been demonstrated in this study, focusing on aviation incidents that took place between 2000 and 2016 in order to recognize the hazards that the human beings lived together during the century. As a result, 324 aviation incident reports from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) database, which took place between the years 2000 and 2016, were studied and among these reports cockpit crew related incidents analyzed using the HFACS Model. As a result of the analyzes, the root causes of human factors have been identified. In addition, unlike traditional HFACS analysis, the relationship between errors and violations that occurred at the organizational and management level and the unsafe acts of the cockpit crew in aviation accidents was statistically revealed.