It has been repeatedly found again and again that human error is partially responsible for accidents of complex systems, and human errors turned out to be the primary contributing cause for about 80% to 90% of the accidents in complex and high risk systems, such as nuclear power plants, aviation, gas and oil, medical domains, etc. Safety research shows that human error is a major cause of industrial and transportation accidents, as opposed to mechanical failures. For example, statistic data shows that more than 80% of the US Naval aviation accidents are caused mainly by human errors.

One such model, which is commonly seen as a good reporting system, and which is widely used in aviation and other industries, is the HFACS, Human Factors Analysis and Classification System. It is a comprehensive accident investigation and analysis tool with focuses both on the act of the individual preceding the accident, and on other contributing factors in the system.

In this book, we introduce Human Factor in Chapter 1, HFACS 7.0 content in Chapter 2, and practical human factor analysis examples for aviation accidents using HFACS 7.0 in Chapter 3.