In their duties of carrying out complicated aerial activities and operations, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) technologies use aircrafts with no cabin crew. According to Torres-Pomalas, 2016). In these operations, these aircrafts use predestined programs or operations from distant locations. The UAV technology is intended to carry out military, reconnaissance, and surveillance operations.
For instance, in the military realm, there has been an increase in the role of the human factor. The role played by humans is required in the design of the UAV aircrafts and the programs that enable them to maneuver the different terrains (Torres-Pomalas, 2016). The other role of the human factor is the maintenance of the aircrafts. One of the major challenges that result in the aviation field due the human factor arises from individual’s decision making (Torres-Pomalas, 2016). When an internal or external pilot, out of an erroneous decision, takes a steep angle turn or does not conform to the required climb rate, may lead to an aircraft crash.
Another challenge in aviation that relates to the human factor is risk taking. Although pilots in helicopters are aware that they may share in the loss after a crash, which may result from their decision to take risk, the pilots of unmanned aircrafts do not suffer the fate of the loss that results from their risk taking (Torres-Pomalas, 2016). Thirdly, humans are also charged with the duties of developing procedural standards of operating the aircrafts. Therefore, failure of the aircrafts may be highly attributed to the development of substandard procedures.
Conclusively, there has been an increase in the number of aircraft crashes as compared to the previous decades (Torres-Pomalas, 2016). Most of the crashes has resulted to human related errors such as engine failures, poor decisions by the pilots that has led to hitting of high mountains and also the deficit of fuel when the aircraft is on air (Torres-Pomalas, 2016). To counter these challenges that result from the human factors, it is recommendable that the civil aviation authorities increase the standard requirements when recruiting the aircraft operating personnel. Similarly, the authorities should train their personnel on the risks that are associated with every decision made by the pilots and the repercussion of every risk taking.
- Torres-Pomalas, W. (2016). Toward a safety risk-based classification of unmanned aircraft. Retrieved from https://ntrs.nasa.gov
