Human factors in aviation maintenance: what training is required?

What it means in practice

Human factors training in maintenance is not limited to certifying staff and is not a one-time awareness talk. The organisation must assess competence for the personnel who plan, perform, supervise, support, or certify maintenance and must ensure that human factors and good maintenance practices are built into procedures and ongoing competence control.

In practical terms, the training must connect with real maintenance work: shift handover, communication, error traps, fatigue, workload, distractions, tooling, documentation, supervision, just culture, and the organisation’s own event history. If the training is generic and disconnected from the actual operation, it may satisfy attendance tracking without materially improving performance.

Who it applies to

The rule matters most to Part-145 organisations and the personnel involved in maintenance planning, execution, supervision, specialised services, certification, and support functions. The exact content depth may vary by role, but the human factors competence issue is broader than the certifying population alone.

For certifying staff and support staff, continuation training is especially important because their authorisation validity and competence control depend on remaining current in relevant technology, procedures, and human factors.

What EASA says

Point 145.A.30(e) requires the organisation to ensure that personnel involved in maintenance, compliance monitoring, safety management, and airworthiness reviews are competent and have an understanding of human factors and human performance issues appropriate to their function. The AMC to 145.A.30(e) sets the competency-assessment objectives and the Appendix material used by organisations to structure the human factors syllabus. Point 145.A.35(d) then requires certifying staff and support staff to receive sufficient continuation training in each two-year period so that their knowledge of technology, organisation procedures, and human factors remains current.

Common mistakes

The first common mistake is limiting human factors training to certifying staff only. The competence system reaches broader maintenance roles, and the organisation should reflect that in its assessments and training matrix.

The second is treating recurrent training as a calendar-only event with generic content. Continuation training should reflect the organisation’s procedures, technologies, errors, and occurrence history. Another frequent weakness is failing to connect human factors training with the SMS and internal reporting system.