Healthcare Issues In Aerospace Industry

Abstract

Aerospace industry is developing day by day. Auditory and visual defects results in numerous human errors. This report summarizes the anatomy of visual and auditory system related to aviation. Vestibular system in relation to aviation is only represented by the inner ear. In order to improve performance and reduce human errors, automation and aviation displays are introduced. Proper documentation also results in reduction of human errors which in turn leads to accidents. Cardiac rhythm and jet lag are the main causes of accident and should be minimized with the help of crew resource management. Therefore, this report concludes about the healthcare issues in aviation which leads to accidents and human errors.

Introduction

The aviation or aerospace industry is referred to the activities that are surrounded by mechanical flight as well as the aircraft industry. This report mainly focuses on the healthcare issues in the aerospace industry. It provides us with a detailed auditory and visual anatomy both of which plays an important role in the aerospace industry. Every crew member mainly members present in the cockpit should have great visual and auditory power in order to diminish human errors. It also focuses on cardiac rhythms and jet lags which results in accidents. This report also summarizes the need of documentation in order to reduce human errors and the role of aviation displays and automation in the aerospace industry. It also targets the various stages involved in the information processing mechanisms.

Human Visual and Auditory System in Aviation

The visual and auditory systems are very important factors which are needed in the aerospace industry. The visual sense is especially necessary in order to avoid collision and for depth perception. Though human eyes cannot be perfect due to the structure of it. Hence, blind spots and illusions can occur but the plane flies trusting the visual sense of pilot. The anatomy of human eye determines that it functions like a camera, where one is able to focus near and far objects clearly (Cholkar, Dasari, Pal & Mitra, 2013). Vision occurs due to the light striking on the photosensitive zone at the back of human eye. This zone is referred to as the retina and is mainly composed of light-sensitive cones and rods. The light that passes through it to the optic nerve generates an impulse which is transferred to brain where the signals interprets as an image and hence one can see objects.

Auditory system has a huge impact on performance. Sound has recently proved to be important in order to deliver information and in addition to divert pilot’s attention to the place which needs monitoring. The human ear is consisting of three parts, namely outer ear, middle ear and inner ear. Outer ear has pinna where the sound waves are collected and ear canal where it travels to the tympanic membrane or eardrum. Middle ear consists of Eustachian tube, ossicles, tympanic cavity and tympanic membrane. Lastly, the inner ear has two inter-connected pathways which are required for both auditory and vestibular systems.

Vestibular System in Aviation

In aviation, vestibular system plays an important role in the onset of motion sickness as well as simulator sickness. Majority of the pilots experiences unusual sensations at some point in their fling careers but rarely speaks about it. The main component of vascular system related to aerospace industry is the inner ear where the vestibular labyrinth is present. The main function of the vestibular system is detection of rotational and translational movement of the head and then generation of its corresponding signal. The generated signals thus contribute in the concept of motion as well as orientation. Illusions can be categorized as vestibular or false feeling of an illusion and visual or false seeing of an illusion. In aviation, accident mainly occurs due to combination of the vestibular and visual illusions. Therefore, when a body undergoes vestibular illusion, vision is the only element that can contradict it. However, in places of poor visibility or darkness, the visual illusion can join hands with vestibular one and accidents occur.

Information Processing Stages

The “simplified” model of information processing consists of a series of stages representing the different stages of processing. The stages include input process of information processing, storage process of information processing and lastly output process of information processing. Input process of are mainly concerned about analysing a stimuli. Storage processes are concerned about everything that is happened to the stimuli in the brain internally and hence can include in coding as well as manipulation of the stimuli. Lastly, the output process of information processing is responsible in order to prepare a convenient response of the stimuli. The “simplified” information processing model also consists of two types of processing namely serial processing and parallel processing. The serial processing effectively suggests that before starting a new process the previous one should be completed. On the other hand, parallel processing suggests that all processes involved in a cognitive task my arise at equivalent time.

Short-term Sensory Storage, Working Memory and Long-term Memory

Sensory memory is referred to as reminisce of a sensory experience. Some individual compares it with a quick snapshot as both needs to be captured before it disappears (Hasson, Chen & Honey, 2015). Short-term memory is defined as that short period of time where recollection of the information or experience occurs. It often encompasses anywhere starting from thirty seconds to few days which mainly depends on the individual using the term. Working memory is also referred as short term memory by some of the researchers. Working memory is mainly defined as the brain capability of storing information for the longest time possible. Working memory is helpful in thought and planning process and in addition to carry out these ideas. It has been related to the executive functioning where it mainly affects the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Lastly, long term memory includes memories ranging from a few days to decades. Hence, for a successful learning, information should be moved from short-term memory to the long-term memory.

The effects of circadian rhythms and circadian desynchronises in aviation

Circadian rhythms are defined as changes in physical; mental; behavioural that follows in a daily cycle. The effects of circadian rhythm related to the aerospace industry are difficult to assess as they are always confounded virtually with other contributory factors. However, some effects are measured which are as follows-

• Most of plane crashes occur at night when maximum sleepiness occurs due to circadian rhythms.
• Risk to get injured is 30 precent higher for individuals working at night shifts due to circadian rhythm.

Symptoms of circadian desynchronise or jet lag includes feelings related to fatigue and inertia thus resulting in difficulties in sleeping and lack of concentration. It also results in gastrointestinal disturbances and a general malaise (Jankowski, 2017). The jet lag is different from travel fatigue as the latter mainly focusses on tiredness experienced due to a long and stressful journey. This jet lag sleepiness can be easily identified as the main causes of faulty functioning in the cockpit. Therefore, according to Weingarten & Collop (2013) it can clearly be concluded that night flights can result in accidents and will impaired performance and hence reduces safety.

Concept of Crew Resource Management

Crew resource management is defined as a set of training processes for use in various environmental conditions where human errors may result in devastating holdings. The training of crew resource management in the aerospace industry mainly deals with awareness, cockpit efficiency, safety communication and decision making skills. The structure of crew resource management in the aviation includes leadership qualities, workload management, conflict resolution, and team and stress management. Introduction of crew resource management in the aviation training in airlines and flight schools have resulted in reduction of errors (Helmreich & Merritt, 2017). Crew resource management provides countermeasures in order to correct the error. Crew resource management training is an expensive training procedure though it is useful as it minimizes the possibility of any company leading to accidents. As, safety in of prime importance in the industry of aerospace, hence crew resource management training proved to be very useful in the maintenance of cockpit, cabin and air traffic.

Aviation Displays in Maximizing Human Performance and Reducing Human Error

Aircrafts performance can be improved primarily by using proper aviation display. Improvement in performance is very difficult to achieve as it needs to improve the overall performance of the air transportation system. A basic way to improve it is by multiplying payload by block speed. They can also be improved by advancement in aircraft aerodynamics structures. Aviation flight displays are mainly specialized in user interfaces that represent flight data consisting of airspeed, altitude and healing to the assigned pilot. They are also responsible in providing pertinent information such as weather radar. They may be electro mechanical or digital. They are mostly use in order to maximize performance of the aircraft and minimize little errors which may alter result in a huge one (Thoreen, 2014). Multifunctional aviation displays are lot more useful than the flight displays as they provide a lot more information and also improve the performance. Multifunctional displays are capable of providing a huge range of pertinent information which includes aircraft’s navigation and topographical as well as obstacle data linked with weather radar overlay.

The Role of Automation in Aviation

Automations referred to as the control and information technologies which help in reduction of the need of human intervention. In aviation, it is found that there is an increase level of automation such as in flights and traffic control systems. Automation in aviation have reduced operational cost as it improves the flight performance, hence fuel usage can be reduced. Also, reduction in number of flight crew members helps in cutting costs for their airlines. In also increases situational awareness as it is successful in relieving the pilots from the workloads by providing essential flight information all the time. Flight safety is thus enhanced as the pilots react more quickly and effectively to conditions due to increased attention from the surrounding environment (Waurzyniak, 2016). Therefore, automation is widely responsible in the development of aerospace industry. Recent years, automation is used widely in aerospace industry particularly in flight and air traffic control.

Need of Documentation in Aerospace Industry

Documentation is an important part the aerospace industry in order to improve the educational techniques ad minimizes human errors. Documents are refereed as the basic source of evidence and enable an organisation to demonstrate compliance as per requirements of the customer and industry regulations. Another important point of references in the determination of regulatory compliance are the assurance records. These records ensure that crew members are capable enough to demonstrate the duty of care to their fellow passengers and in addition also take of their passengers’ safety. Documents updating procedures are often hand written which may result in errors. Hence, digital documentation is always preferable in order to minimize errors. In addition to this digital documentation are easy to maintain and it reduces the storage space. Usage of automated documentation management like Adept reduces overhead cost and support key initiatives like Lean manufacturing as well as Six Sigma for shortening waste and inefficiencies in the Aerospace and Defence Sectors.

Understanding the Errors in Aviation

Understanding of human errors that leads to aviation accidents and incident are bet understood by Bayes’ theorem. According to it has an efficient solution in understanding the relation between latent as well as active failures. According to research details of Miranda (2018), it can be opined that the Bayes’ theorem can be used in order to understand human errors leading to major aviation accidents. Modern ideas that are recommended in order to overcome human errors are implementation of crew resource management which focusses on the communication and leadership skills required ion the cockpit. Another idea is implementation of Single Pilot Resource Management which is quite similar to crew resource management but is proved to be more focussed on the situational awareness, its time and workload management (Jensen, 2017). On the other hand, line operations safety adults are designs in order to assemble data related to crew performance and then analysing and understanding the organisational factors. Lastly, safety management system focusses on reduction of human errors by identifying and handling the risk occurring in the aviation.

Conclusion

Human errors thus lead to occurrence of accidents which reduces the safety of passengers traveling in air. Hence, the auditory, visual and vestibular systems should be checked in order to avoid accidents. Cardiac rhythm and cardiac desynchronises are the main cause of accidents. Proper documentation and aviation displays reduced the risk of human errors by many folds and in turn have also increased the aviation performance. Hence, it can be concluded that automation and aviation have resulted in decrease of human errors.

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