The coursework questionnaire comprises five questions

 First of all, it is important to look at the definitions of anthropometry. It is a field of study, which is related to human body, and its measurements. It means that anthropometry helps to understand that what psychical characteristics a human body has. There are two broader terms in anthropometry. The first one is called static or structural anthropometry, which talks about the body’s dimensions, when it is in fixed as well as standardized position. The second relevant part is called dynamic or functional anthropometry, which takes measurements of human bodies at work or in motion. It means that anthropometry deals with not only standard routine positions of humans, but when they are at work, and in motion doing any kind of physical tasks [1]

  Keeping the anthropometry definition in view, it is important to look at Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), which is used to see that what kind of ergonomic risk factors can be there for those, who handle different kind of tasks. The special focus would be given to aviation baggage handlers, who deal with heavy baggage on daily basis. The anthropometry dynamic or functional aspect would be the most relevant in this regard as it deals with the measurements, which would be taken for human bodies at work. So, RULA along with anthropometry can be handy in looking for the risk factors, which aviation baggage handlers may have. It is important to mention that when RULA is done on various situations including aviation baggage handlers, there can be different kinds of MSD risk. The first risk could be negligible and it would require no action. The second risk can be of low level, and it may ask for some changes. The third one is called medium risk, which asks to do further investigation, and fourth one is very high risk, which asks to implement a change on instant basis. The great thing about RULA is that it not only helps in indentifying the risk factors, but it also helps to do it in less possible time as compared to any other method [2]

The aviation luggage handlers can be in risk of many injuries which they may have to face in terms of their bodies. The baggage handlers in aviation industry work in different conditions, and each one can be crucial for their body. They may have to face the risks in repetitive lifting, pulling & pushing, restricted posture lifting, forceful lifting, heavy lifting, and overexertion. These risks can badly damage different parts of their bodies. The work in the height restricted area can also have many other risk factors. Therefore the baggage workers can sustain different injuries to their neck, shoulder, back etc [3]. Looking at these various risks, it is important that different workplace design strategies should be used for baggage handlers so that they can avoid these serious risks. It is recommended that forward facing and upright posture is given to baggage handlers. There should not be restricted postures; rather baggage handlers should have option of adopting different safe postures during their work etc [4]

Q. 1 You need to answer any FOUR questions.

 The user centered design is a great approach, which keeps human system integration in view, when anything is developed, whether a process or product. The great thing about user centered design is that it only focused on the needs of the humans that what they need for certain process. It means that user centered design puts it complete focus on humans and users as they are the ones, who are going to use the new product or system. There are different phases involved in design process, according to user centered design; each phase must keep its focus on users. There would be no phase keeping user out of context. Every phase of the design will consider that what is suitable for users, as they are going to use the developed product or system design [5].

Keeping the situation given in the scenario that landing of the aircraft was safe, but it was done with an unstable approach due to sudden changes observed in terms of the wind, which made things difficult for pilot. Still, the landing was safe, but it came with investigation, which revealed that there was lack of information with regards to wind shear event, and it was the major cause of this problem faced by pilots during the landing. The important thing to remember is that situation could have been worst, if pilots would not have got things under control. The decision was a good one from the Airline to design a relevant system, which works in such situations to inform pilots about any changes in the weather and wind. It is important to understand that for this system, the pilots are the most relevant and important users of the design, so it is recommended to use user centered a design approach to develop the system.

It is important to understand that user centered approach can go through different phases until the final product, system or process is developed, and at each phase, it is critical to keep users in the process. The first phase is analysis phase, where the situation will be analyzed that how things are being done before, and what is lacking in the process for the Airline. At this point, the Airline should make sure that their design development team is experienced in their work and they should understand explicit and implicit requirements for this project. Moreover, the users should be expert in their respective fields so that they can provide valid feedback and contribute effectively. Then evaluation should be made that what users have told, and what can be done in this regard. Once the data is collected, then next phase is to develop the design accordingly. Once the design is developed, it should be implemented o see how it performs, and if proves successful, then it should be launched for official purposes of the Airline. This user center approach will be good enough to develop a system, which is useful for pilots to know about any sudden changes in weather and wind, and act accordingly [6]

Q. 2 If more than four questions are attempted, only the

            First of all, it is important to explain some major parts of the incident happened to ATR72 Tuninter Flight 1153. The Flight 1153 was doing its flight on 6^th Aug, 2005 and it was going from Bari to Djerba. The flight was in the air for 50 minutes after its takeoff, when it faced an issue at the height of 23.000 feet, when one of the engines of the flight suddenly shut down. And just after the 100 seconds, the second engine of the aircraft also shut down. The attempt was made by the pilots to restart the engine, but they could not do so, and they could not perform precautionary landing as well. In the end, the aircraft struck into the Italian territorial waters after 16 minutes of struggle and broken into three pieces [7]

Source Page 19: http://www.aviation-accidents.net/report-download.php?id=13

The above mentioned series of events is the short story about the actual accident, but the major concern was to investigate the cause of this accident. It was shocking to see that both engines shut down suddenly. So, it is important to apply a framework to analyze that what went wrong in this accident from reviewing prior events. The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) Framework is important, and purpose of this framework was to see that why human related processes were coming with so many problems. In this framework, the most important model is called The Swiss Cheese Model. This model does not look at the error of human in an aviation accident, rather it takes a systematic approach to analyze that what went wrong from the organizational perceptive. [8]

The Swiss-cheese Model

Source: https://www.hfacs.com/hfacs-framework.htm

If Swiss Cheese Model is applied to this accident case, then first step would be to see organizational influences. In first stage of the model, the airline company was not having any proper resource management and its operational processes had many flaws like when technicians were making an effort to locate FQI suitable for ATR 72 in the spare parts management system, the results from the system was negative. They tried other methods to look for FQI, and this time they found one FQI suitable for ATR 42 and ATR 72 [9, p. 5]. But actually, the FQI code was applicable for only ATR 42, and it could not be used for ATR 72 [9, p. 6]. The second step in model is unsafe supervision. The technician team and supervisors was not able to identify the flaw in their operations, and they failed to correct the known problem with appropriate method [9, p. 6]. It looks that they had any mental limitations to think about appropriate operations. Otherwise they should have checked IPC of FQI being installed so that they could have known about any issues [9, p. 6]. The last stage is committing the unsafe acts, and it was done, when wrong FQI was installed in ATR 72, which was only supposed to be used in ATR 42 [9, p. 6]. This is where the final mistakes were made, and aircraft was given green signal to fly, and in the end, it met a serious accident.

Q. 3 Each question is equally weighted with each question worth one-quarter of the marks available for the coursework

            It is important to understand that performance shaping factors are related to those factors, which can enhance or otherwise degrade the performance of humans working in a working environment. These factors do influence the performance of humans in so many ways. It is also critical to know that these factors can be both internal and external. The internal factors include the fitness of the humans, his/hr stress and motivation level, or mood. The external factors are the ones, which are present in the environment like noise, temperature, or any kind of vibration etc. So, it means that external factors are the ones, which are associated with environmental performance shaping factors and they can be important to determine that how a employee will work in certain conditions [10]

            An Aviation maintenance engineer has to go through various phases in his 8 hours daily shift, where he has to perform various tasks. There can be various environmental factors, which can affect his health and work abilities in so many ways. Here is the explanation of few of them:

Noise: An Aviation maintenance engineer works so close to the aircrafts, and during their testing, they have to deal with so much noise. In the scenario, it is said that aviation engineer is handling the noise level of 80db on average, which means that most of the time noise also goes beyond 80db. According to data, it has been revealed that what kind of activities produce how much noise. Here is a table to look at the noise levels for different activities:

Source: https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP715.PDF

            As per this table, it is revealed that pain threshold can be felt at the level of 140db, whereas when noise level crosses the limit of 150db, it can result in hearing damage on immediate basis [11]. The noise level by the aviation engineer is 80db, which can be considered safe, and with less effects on his performance.

Temperature: The temperature can also be important for the performance of an aviation manager. If engineer is working in too cold conditions, his performance will certainly be affected and result in poor performance. If engineer works in extreme hot conditions, where temperature is too hot, it will also result poor performance. But if temperature will be in balance between the hot and cold, it will not affect the engineer’s performance. It means that in the hangers while working with aircrafts, the levels of temperature should be in balance to allow engineers to work conveniently [11]. The temperature in the given situation is 28 degrees Celsius, which is good enough for the engineer to work efficiently.

Vibration: The vibration can also affect the performance of aviation engineers when they work with aircrafts. For instance, if 0.5 Hz to 20 Hz level is held by the vibration, it can create problems. If the level off vibration is 50-150 Hz, it can create serious problems and injuries to the engineers. It has been observed that with this vibration on hand, the engineer can get the disease of Vibratory-induced White Finger Syndrome (VWF) [11]. The given level in the scenario is 500Hz, which is way higher than the dangerous level. It means that vibration can cause some serious damages to the aviation engineer.

 References of Human Factors