Beyond “root cause: human error”. Five principles for investigators.
Root cause: human error.
Corrective action: retrain operator.
If you have worked in incident investigation for any length of time, you have read that pair of lines. Some of us have written them.
It gets the report closed. It satisfies the template. And a few months later something uncomfortably close to it happens again…
A Different Perspective on SCTA: When “Just Enough” Leads to Marginal Losses
We often talk about marginal gains in improving SCTA. This blog explores the other side: marginal losses and how quality can quietly erode over time.
It also looks at what it means to be an intelligent customer of analysis, not just asking “was it done?”, but “how well was it really done?”
Aviation Maintenance and Human Error: A Practical SCTA Case Study
We often think of safety in terms of operations, but maintenance plays an equally critical role.
In this blog, we look at a helicopter maintenance task and explore how Human Factors methods can be used to understand how things could go wrong, and why.
It’s a good reminder that even routine tasks deserve careful attention.
Beyond the Training Matrix: A Human Factors Approach to Competence Management
Competence management is often treated as a standalone system, separate from risk assessment.
But what if competence standards were derived directly from Human Factors risk analysis?
Human Factors in Major Accident Hazard Regulation and Guidance: A Descriptive Overview
Human Factors are now central to managing major accident risk. But how are they actually embedded in regulation and guidance around the world?
Top 10 Opportunities with Digital Procedures
SOPs have long been one of the defence barriers against human error, guiding safe and consistent task execution across high-hazard industries.
With digital procedures, new opportunities are emerging to make information more accessible, usable, and dynamic.
Meeting PABIAC’s Human Factors Objectives (Part 3): Getting Started with SCTA
This is the final instalment in our trilogy of blogs on meeting PABIAC’s Human Factors Objectives – Getting Started with SCTA.
Meeting PABIAC’s Human Factors Objectives (Part 2): A Systematic Approach to HF risk management
Many facilities understand the why behind human factors but struggle with the how. Our latest blog breaks down the systematic approach that successful organisations use to integrate human factors into their operations.
The 2005 Stockwell Shooting: A lethal stew whose ingredients had been long in the cooking
Using the 2005 Stockwell shooting as a case study, this blog demonstrates how major incidents rarely result from single failures, but rather from the alignment of multiple systemic weaknesses across five stages.
Meeting PABIAC’s Human Factors Objectives (Part 1): An Introduction
PABIAC’s latest strategy marks a turning point for the sector—placing human factors at the heart of safety. But what does that really mean in practice?
