Task Analysis of Aircraft Inspection Activities: Methods and Findings

Unless the U.S. commercial aircraft fleet is maintained with high reliability, we cannot be assured of flight safety with an ageing fleet. Maintenance depends upon inspection to be effective, thus the reliability of aircraft inspection is of paramount importance to safety. To provide baseline data on the current inspection activities of commercial aircraft, a task analysis of inspection by commercial carriers was undertaken as part of the Federal Aviation Administration's National Ageing Aircraft Research Program (NAARP). This paper describes the Task Analysis methodology developed, typical results, and some human-system mismatches detected.