Human factor determinants of worker safety and work quality outcomes

Abstract

The circumstances leading up to 619 safety occurrences that occurred during aircraft maintenance were examined. Ninety-six per cent of the occurrences were at least partly attributable to human actions and in most cases, these actions took the form of errors. The most frequent errors were memory lapses, rule violations and skill-based slips. Worker safety occurrences tended to be preceded by skill-based slips, whereas work quality occurrences tended to be preceded by memory lapses. It is apparent that safety interventions must take into account the associations between error forms and outcomes.