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New and proposed human factors regulations and initiatives in aircraft maintenance (JAR 145, 66 and 147, and the equivalent FAR regulations) make it timely to reassess the strategy and achievements of human factors programmes in aviation. Much human factors activity is directed towards the goal of controlling human error. There are a number of different theories of "human error". Perhaps the most influential has been Rasmussen's taxonomy of skill, rule and knowledge-based error. The methodology for the analysis of organisational safety culture included the review of company documentation on safety and management systems including a selection of incident reports, semi-structured interviews, a safety attitude and climate survey, and a survey concerning compliance with task procedures. One major finding was the highly significant difference in safety climate between the organisations. A second major …