rev 16mar09

Synopsis

There have been a number of perplexing accidents in recent years that have posed the question as to what extent the design of the systems have contributed to the outcome. The reason why these questions have been raised is that the analysis of the causes of the accidents have suggested pilot behaviour that was extremely atypical and certainly difficult if not impossible for designers to predict. The two accidents that demonstrate this are the Helios Boeing 737 and the TAM Airbus 320 accidents.

In the Helios accident the crew became hypoxic before correctly identifying the warning sound as referring to a failure in cabin pressurisation rather than takeoff configuration. In the TAM accident the crew failed to select idle thrust on one of the engines on landing and ran off the end of the runway. A possible reason for this was that the Captain, aware that the thrust reverser was unserviceable and used to an auto-throttle system where levers do not move, just left the throttle lever in the Climb (normal flight) detent position.

Aim of Conference

The aim of this conference, which has been developed jointly with the UK Ergonomics Society, is to share industry knowledge and experience from a wide audience on the importance of human factors in design so that systems are safer.

Objectives:

- Exploring any conflict between safer design and design for certification.
- Examining how much is compromise a key issue in design.
- Recognising the need for comprehensive operator input.
- Understanding new regulations in HF certification.

Who Should Attend

The seminar is intended for Design and Development Managers, Operations Directors, Regulators, Systems Developers, Ergonomists, Applied Psychologists and Scientists.

Programme and Presentations

Any programme changes will be posted immediately. Presentations are made available when cleared by speakers. All presentations are copyright (c) 2009 by their authors. Information and papers presented here are not intended for sale or redistribution without written consent from their authors.

Note: Many of the presentations and papers provided below require Adobe Acrobat, a standard document viewing application.  This is available free:

Powerpoint (PPT) presentations can be viewed using the free Microsoft (r) PPT viewer available from the Microsoft Download Center

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