Safety Culture Can Reduce Human Errors In Aviation Accidents
By Shareen Han and Stephanie Liew

Bandar Seri Begawan - Human errors have been found to be a leading cause of aviation accidents and incidents, a UK aviation safety expert said yesterday, but with the right safety culture and a more error-tolerant approach in safety management systems, such errors can be managed.

Cliff Edwards, managing director of Aviation Hazard Management, in a talk on human factors in safety management system said that human errors have caused about 80 per cent of accidents, but added that these are manageable, as they can be predicted and measured.

"In principle, every occurrence or accident has an element of human error in it," said Edwards during the seminar in conjunction with the Aviation Safety Week at the Rizqun International Hotel. Many factors contribute to human errors, including mental and physical health, support systems, leadership, communication and working culture, but individuals are not solely to blame as the organisation's system itself could be flawed.

Having had 45 years of experience in the aviation industry, Edwards said that a desire to learn is the foundation of any error management programme.

"Data is important and will help, but data driven safety only helps to fix what already went wrong," he said.

He added: "We need a better approach to understanding our workplace and the issues our staff face every day and we need to build in more error tolerant systems."

A safety culture should be instilled in all organisations to ensure the efficiency of a system, he said. "No matter what your position in the company, you can begin to change the culture and make a difference," he said.

He further said that commitment is the key to manage the problem of changing the working culture. Good communication skills can also be practised to achieve effective teamwork and decrease the number of human-caused aviation accidents, he said.

Training is necessary for employees, but it is not the answer to address the problem of human-caused 'accidents, because effective leadership is still required to change attitudes and behaviours, he added. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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