Human factors in aviation: Fatigue management in ramp workers

Although over the years, technical systems (equipment) have been evolving, most of the occurrences in the aviation industry, namely in the ground-handling area, are related to human error, constituting a neglected topic in aviation safety. Since one works 24 h a day and 7 days a week in the aviation industry, the shift work system is the most viable and (only) option to solve this problem, making fatigue an important and quite significant safety issue. Currently, the performance and alertness of ramp workers continue to be negatively affected by fatigue, increasing the risk of accidents/incidents. In this sense, the overall objective of this study was to establish and propose a first attempt to develop a Fatigue Management System, designed to prevent ramp workers from performing their tasks when fatigued and to take appropriate mitigation actions to minimize the consequences of fatigue caused by shift work. Despite not being exhaustive, this approach may also provide good guidance for future research in this field since fatigue is not associated with sleep disorders only.