Assessment of maintenance safety climate in U.S. Navy Fleet Logistics Support Wing Squadrons

Abstract

Despite Naval Aviation's success in cutting its Class A Flight Mishap rate in half each successive decade between 1950 and 1990, the proportion of aircraft losses attributable to human error has remained relatively constant during the last decade. From Fiscal Years 1990 through 1998, maintenance error was a causal factor in approximately one out of every five Class A Flight Mishaps. Presently there is an on-going effort to identify and systematically reduce factors contributing to human error in Naval Aviation maintenance. This study administers Baker's (1998) Maintenance Climate Assessment Survey (MCAS), which evaluates factors contributing to high reliability, to nearly 1000 participants from the Naval Fleet Logistics Support Wing (FLSW). The purpose of this study is to assess maintainer perspectives of maintenance operations and safety culture within their respective communities. This study finds statistically differentiable responses among the aircraft communities that comprise the FLSW; differences that potentially will help in identifying and developing intervention strategies to further reduce human error in aviation maintenance. Additionally, a proposed list of MCAS questions is produced for fleet wide distribution.