Safety and Human performance

In aviation operations, managing fatigue is essential as it diminishes an individual’s ability to perform almost all operational tasks. This clearly has implications for operational efficiency, but in situations where individuals are undertaking safety-critical activities, fatigue-effected performance can also have consequences for safety outcomes.

NLR can provide expert support during accident or incident investigations, offering specialist advice and analysis of critical data such as flight or radar records. Our team can also delve into the details of flight performance and dynamics, as well as investigate systems, components, materials, or structures through testing and analysis. This helps to uncover the root causes of incidents and inform safety improvements.

Safety performance indicators are used to assess operational safety performance through monitoring. A safety performance indicator is defined in the ICAO Safety Management Manual as a measure (or metric) used to express the level of safety performance achieved in a system. They are generally expressed in terms of the frequency of occurrences of some event causing harm, e.g., the number of fatal aircraft accidents per year or serious incidents per 10,000 flight hours. A set of indicators should also include leading indicators. These indicators do not require a safety event to take place and are metrics that provide information on the current situation that may affect future performance.

NLR can provide an objective assessment of aerospace operators, including air traffic controllers, pilots, and other professionals, evaluating their mental workload, stress levels, fatigue, attention, and alertness, as well as their activity levels, to gain a comprehensive understanding of their performance and well-being.