This presentation is about the human factors involved in an aviation accident in NZ between a Yak and a cherry picker.

Dr Dirk Pons will identify the typical types of human error, contextualise these to the accident, and illustrate how such accidents can be represented in the barrier bowtie method.

Photo by Tess Smith - See article by Jonathan Mitchell of RNZ  6:10, Jul 06 2020 published on Stuff.

Human factors are the things that go wrong in the interactions between a team of people and a system of technology. This is part of a broader transdisciplinary field called engineering psychology, which as the name suggests, draws from both engineering and psychology. Many, if not most, catastrophic accidents involve a socio-technical interaction, i.e. are not solely due to technology failure. Hence there is a need to consider human factors in the development or deployment of any technical system.

The content of the presentation is primarily directed to industry practitioners interested in better health and safety outcomes, e.g. in plant operations or construction management. Those involved in event management may also find the content useful for their work. Prospective postgraduate students may also find inspiration for future research topics. The content is suitable for a general audience and does not require any deep understanding of engineering, psychology, aviation, yaks, or cherries.

The presenter is: Dr Dirk Pons

PhD (Eng), MScMedicine, M.Leadership, BScEng(Mech), Fellow Engineering NZ (IPENZ), Tohunga Wetepanga, Chrtrd. Prof. Eng (CPEng, NZ), International Professional Engineer (Int. PE. EngNZ)

Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering

University of Canterbury,

Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8020, New Zealand

Research: http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/Researcher.aspx?researcherid=4113595

Publications: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7141-0291