Human Factors In The Crash Of A British Midland Airways

Aviation is the safest means of transportation. However, accidents happen from time to time. As a matter of fact, approximately 80 percent of all aviation accidents are caused by human errors. The part within these 80 percent which is contributed to maintenance related errors or faults is estimated by 6 to 25. Obviously aircraft has become safer over the years so that the causes for aircraft accidents have changed from technical faults to human errors. Simply spoken, the term human factors involves working to make the environment function in way that seems natural to people. Although the terms human factors and ergonomics have not been widely known in recent times, it is design to improve the aviation safety. The basic definition of human factors is the relations between human and humans, human and machines, human and working processes and humans and their environment. In EASA PART 145 also has stated that personnel requirements and responsibilities must be respect to human factors. Human factors principles must apply to all aeronautical design, certification, training, operations, and maintenance for the safety of interface between human and other system components by proper consideration of human performance. Human performance means human capabilities and limitations which have an impact on the safety and efficiency of aeronautical operations.
The purpose of this task is to analyse and evaluate human factors when applied to a case study. The case study will be based on the crash of a British Midland Airways which involved aircraft Boeing 737-400 series. This undesirable event occurred on 8th January 1989 when British Midland Flight 92 crashed while attempting an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport. This accident caused b...

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...rcraft to decent to 1,200 meters to land. So the pilot blows another chance to save the aircraft from crash landing by not resuming all the decision with the first officer. To control the decent the pilot increase the throttle of the left engine without realising it will cause a fatal blow to the engine. By increasing the fan speed caused the fracture fan blade deep into the engine and the engine started to tear apart. Then the engine loses all the power and catches fire. In desperation, the pilot try to restart the right engine with the wind mill start using the plane speed to spin up the engine blade. But it is too late because the air speed is too low. The pilot managed to stretch the glide by pull the nose up to avoid crashing into the village of Kegworth before crashing into the embankment of the M1 motorway. This accident saw 47 out of 126 people abroad died.