The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) identifies the human causes of an accident and offers tools for analysis as a way to plan preventive training.[1] It was developed by Dr. Scott Shappell of the Civil Aviation Medical Institute and Dr. Doug Wiegmann of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign in response to a trend that showed some form of human error was a primary causal factor in 80% of all flight accidents in the Navy and Marine Corps.[1]

HFACS is based in the "Swiss cheese" model of human error[2] which looks at four levels of human failure, including unsafe acts, preconditions for unsafe acts, unsafe supervision, and organizational influences.[1] It is a comprehensive human error framework that folded James Reason's ideas into the applied setting, defining 19 causal categories within four levels of human failure.[3]

Swiss cheese model of accident causation
Swiss cheese model of accident causation


See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS),"Approach, July - August 2004. Accessed July 12, 2007. Archived February 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Reason, J. [1990] Human Error. Cambridge University Press
  3. ^ HFACS Analysis of Military and Civilian Aviation Accidents: A North American Comparison. ISASI, 2004
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