A methodology to support decision making and effective human reliability methods in aviation safety

This chapter shows firstly a practical way to support risk informed decision making processes. The approach, discussed only in abstract and theoretical terms, shows that it is possible to develop practical instruments supporting the safety analysts in presenting overall results of the risk analysis process to the decision makers in a way that highlights the effectiveness of safety measures and their efficiency with respect to cost benefit.

The second part of this chapter evaluates four different and well established human reliability methods, with the aim to assess their differences and ability to cope with aviation procedures. The comparison of results of applying the methods to two aviation case studies shows advantages and drawbacks in the implementation of each method. It has not been possible to come to a conclusive assessment of the ability of the methods to cope with aviation issues, as a much more extensive process is necessary to carry out an accurate revision of existing data.