Issues That Precipitate Errors in Airline Maintenance

Human factors in Federal Aviation Regulation Part 121 aircraft maintenance operations as they relate to technician performance are important factors that play a significant role in the public safety of air transportation systems. This paper reports on the results of an analysis of one thousand National Aeronautical and Space Administration “Aviation Safety Reporting System” incident reports for aircraft maintenance related issues. This paper identifies aircraft types, including systems, and compares events that precipitate human errors. Five high profile performance based error categories were selected for this paper. They include: technician qualifications, inspections, parts installation, contract maintenance, and log book documentation issues.