I bring you a weekly bite-sized chunk of the science behind helicopter human factors and CRM in practice, simplifying the complex and distilling a helicopter related study into a summary of less than 500 words.
TITLE:
Hero or Hazard: A systematic review of individual differences linked with reduced accident involvement and influencing success during emergencies.
WHAT?
Extension of last week’s research in HHF#23. Review of literature examining the human factors associated with reduced accident involvement and successful performance during emergencies. It aggregates evidence across socio-technical, high-risk industries to identify reliable predictors of human success and failure under pressure.
WHERE?
Griffith University, Australia, drawing on studies from multiple countries and spanning domains such as aviation, rail, mining, and nuclear power.
WHEN?
Published in Heliyon in 2023. It includes studies published up to October 2022.
WHY?
James Reason proposed that individuals with certain traits excel in emergency situations. Although the actions of such an individual may save a situation when something goes wrong, the underlying system that produced the unsafe situation might remain unsafe and unresolved. These are the “heroes” of Reason’s theories of human error and “heroic recoveries.” This study focuses on hero characteristics to identify whether there are individual traits or skills which protect against accidents or enable effective action when crises occur. Understanding these predictors could enhance recruitment, training, and safety management in high-reliability organisations.
HOW?
22 peer-reviewed studies were assessed and data were examined and statistically analysed to identify patterns in the individual differences correlating with safety performance and success in emergency handling.
FINDINGS:
Heroes
Of those proposed by Reason, five key factors were consistently associated with reduced accident involvement and success in emergencies. These were: training; skill; leadership; situation awareness; and personality traits such as conscientiousness and emotional stability.
Additional factors linked specifically to reduced accidents were identified by the review, including cognitive ability, confidence, decision-making, reaction time, and risk perception. Emotional stability emerged as particularly relevant for managing stress in emergencies.
Reason also proposed the factors of creativity, improvisation, and professionalism to be predictive, but no evidence was found to support these.
Hazards
The study found that lower cognitive ability (weak working memory, task switching, poor visual processing); poor situation awareness; certain personality traits (such as low conscientiousness & high neuroticism); risk-seeking tendencies; and slow reaction time or poor decision-making, were consistently identifiable in cases with poor outcomes.Strong interconnections were observed—particularly between training, confidence, and emotional stability, as well as decision-making and skill/experience.
SO WHAT?
The review shows that real-world safety performance emerges from interconnected human factors rather than isolated traits. For example, training reinforces both skill and confidence, leadership enhances team situation awareness, and emotional stability supports decision-making under stress. The interplay of these factors suggests that training should move its focus away from solely working on skills or procedures, and increase teaching and development of cognitive attributes (thinking skills of attention, problem-solving, decision-making); emotional attributes (staying calm, managing stress, regulating fear); and behavioural attributes (leadership, communication, teamwork etc.).
A more systems-based understanding of human capability, where adaptability, leadership, and situational cognition are co-developed, could transform CRM and resilience training across high-risk sectors. A greater emphasis of the interplay between cognitive, interpersonal, and emotional factors would improve resilience, coordination, and judgment in complex emergency handling.
REFERENCE:
Bagley, L., Boag-Hodgson, C., Stainer, M., 2023. Hero or hazard: a systematic review of
individual differences linked with reduced accident involvement and influencing
success during emergencies. Heliyon 9 (4). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.
e15006.
competentaviators.com 