DEVELOPING A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF AIRLINE SAFETY IN NEW ZEALAND: A SYSTEMS THINKING APPROACH

Abstract

Airline safety tends to result from a combination of many different circumstances that include technical, human, environmental and organizational factors. By using the systems thinking tools of qualitative system dynamics, this paper develops a conceptual causal loop diagram that connects possible influential factors on airline safety. This theoretical investigation constitutes a sound basis for the development of cause-effect relationships associated with accident and incident analysis in the air transport industry. Our findings suggest that causal loop modelling is a very useful tool for producing a comprehensive model of airline safety management that takes into account the multi-dimensional and complex nature of air safety mechanisms. It is hoped that the airline industry, and particularly air safety managers, will become more aware of the importance of this kind of modelling to mprove their airline safety management systems.