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An investigation of air accidents in Nigeria using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) framework

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  • Daramola, Adebukola Yewande

Abstract

Increasing air traffic growth has been achieved along with substantial improvement in safety globally. While air traffic is equally growing in Nigeria, safety levels do not appear to be growing side by side. This was gleaned from the spate of accidents and fatalities recorded in the last couple of decades. The study therefore set out to assess safety performance in Nigeria's air transport industry by comparing accidents and fatality rates with global average levels during the period 1985–2008. A content analysis of the accident reports was done using the Human Factors Analysis Classification System (HFACS) as a conceptual framework; this was augmented with results of industry experts assessment of the Nigerian aviation industry. Their assessments were also discussed in the context of the conceptual framework. Accidents and passenger fatality rates in Nigeria were higher than global average figures for most of the years included in the analysis period. Findings on aircraft ages show that these are also higher than world average levels. The aviation industry experts' assessment presented various challenges which include inadequate airport facilities, absence of timely meteorological information and dearth of skilled personnel in Nigeria's aviation industry. The content analysis of the accident reports using the HFACS shows that skill based errors; physical environment and inadequate supervision are the most frequently occurring categories influencing accident occurrences. The Chi-square and Fishers's test used to analyze significant relationships in the HFACS categories obtained in the accident reports showed five pairs of significant associations between adjacent categories. Based on these associations, Supervisory Violations:-Crew Resource Management:- Decision Errors path is deemed the most potent for accident occurrences. Findings from the research point to the need to address personnel skill, physical environment issues (mostly weather related) and supervisory competence.

Suggested Citation

  • Daramola, Adebukola Yewande, 2014. "An investigation of air accidents in Nigeria using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) framework," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 39-50.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:35:y:2014:i:c:p:39-50
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2013.11.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Arnold Barnett, 2010. "Cross-National Differences in Aviation Safety Records," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(3), pages 322-332, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chang, Chiung-Ting, 2017. "Risk factors associated with flying in adverse weather: From the passengers' point of view," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 68-75.
    2. Lan, He & Ma, Xiaoxue & Qiao, Weiliang & Ma, Laihao, 2022. "On the causation of seafarers’ unsafe acts using grounded theory and association rule," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    3. Kilic, Bilal & Ucler, Caglar, 2019. "Stress among ab-initio pilots: A model of contributing factors by AHP," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Tuqiang Zhou & Junyi Zhang & Dashzeveg Baasansuren, 2018. "A Hybrid HFACS-BN Model for Analysis of Mongolian Aviation Professionals’ Awareness of Human Factors Related to Aviation Safety," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-20, November.
    5. Mehdi Tavakoli & Mehdi Nafar, 2021. "Modification of the FFTA method for calculating and analyzing the human reliability of maintenance groups in power transmission grids," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 12(6), pages 1221-1234, December.
    6. Dönmez, Kadir & Uslu, Suat, 2020. "The effect of management practices on aircraft incidents," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Kaptan, Mehmet & Uğurlu, Özkan & Wang, Jin, 2021. "The effect of nonconformities encountered in the use of technology on the occurrence of collision, contact and grounding accidents," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    8. Havle, Celal Alpay & Kılıç, Bilal, 2019. "A hybrid approach based on the fuzzy AHP and HFACS framework for identifying and analyzing gross navigation errors during transatlantic flights," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 21-30.

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