A failure to follow procedures (FFP) plays a part in up to 87 percent of safety events in aviation maintenance, with that number likely to be reduced only through a systematic approach that addresses contributing factors at all levels of a maintenance organization, according to a report by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).1
“Many maintenance-related safety events are the result of employees not following prescribed procedures for completing a task,” said the report, based on a review of several hundred technical reports and other scientific documents regarding factors that contribute to FFP in aviation maintenance and potential mitigations. “FFP refers to situations in which someone, whether intentionally or not, failed to follow a written procedure or policy.”
The FAA’s requirement to comply with instructions exactly as they have been written is “straightforward, but complying with it is not,” according to the report, which was p…
