Resilience in the aviation system

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the main characteristics of the civil aviation domain and their relation with concepts coming from the approach of resilience engineering. Our objective is to first outline the structural properties of the aviation domain (i.e. regulations, standards, relationships among the various actors, system dynamics), to then present some example processes that bear an effect on the system resilience. We will in particular reason on training and on the role of automation, to discuss how and to what extent they impact on system resilience. We contend that, in a complex system like aviation, resilience engineering is not a matter of simple technical upgrades, rather is about facing contradictory tensions and dynamic system changes. This paper contains a pilot's first-hand reflections, so it aims to stimulate discussion on some issues that are still open, rather than providing solutions. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.