Psychological and physiological fatigue variation and fatigue factors in aircraft line maintenance crews

Aircraft maintenance is an integral component of an aviation system. 21% of all reported incidents in the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) are fatigue-related, and 18% of all accidents have maintenance factors involved. Guidelines for Maintenance Resource Management (MRM) are hence developed to combine human factors knowledge with interpersonal skills and personal maintenance skills in order to improve communication effectiveness and safety in aircraft maintenance operations. One of the identified human factors that lead to maintenance errors is fatigue. This paper examined the psychological and physiological fatigue variation in shift workers and the subjective factors affecting the fatigue of line maintenance crews. Questionnaires collected from two major airlines in Taiwan are used to investigate the underlying fatigue factors.