Aeromedical Causes of Accident Errors among Pilots and Aircraft Engineers in Nigeria

Abstract

Errors in the aviation industry are considered among experts as major factors that cause accidents and incidents. This paper examines the aeromedical factors that account for incident or accident errors among pilots and aircraft engineers in Nigeria. The paper made use of data collected by administering questionnaires to randomly sampled respondents. A total of 300 questionnaires were administered to both pilots and aircraft engineers. Data were analysed using a combination of factor and multiple regression analyses. The extracted variables after factor rotation show that general health (78.20%) is the most significant cause of errors among air craft engineers. As regards pilots, disorientation (79.20%) was found as the most critical aeromedical cause of errors. The results of the multiple regression analysis show R = 0.651 for aircraft engineers and R = 0.607 for pilots. These findings reveal that aviation accidents and incidents arising from errors could be traceable to these aeromedical factors. The paper recommends that stringent enforcement of aeromedical conditions should be added to the licensing and recertification guidelines for aviation professionals so that accidents and incidents traceable to errors can be reduced to the barest minimum in the Nigeria aviation industry.