Human Factors and the Reliability of Airframe Visual Inspection

The task of visual inspection has important safety and cost implications, but studies of visual inspection reliability are still rare. If we are to understand and improve reliability, then techniques and insights are needed from different disciplines. Three disciplines are reviewed for their potential contributions: Non-Destructive (NDI) reliability studies, industrial inspection studies and CRM/MRM studies. Examples of how the use of multiple disciplines can help measurement and analysis are given, reaching the conclusion that more explicit integration among these disciplines is required.