Definition
A descriptor used in aviation safety and training to indicate that an event, error, accident, or contributing cause involves how people perform, decide, communicate, or interact with equipment and other people, rather than a purely mechanical or environmental cause.
Plain English
Caused by, or connected to, the way people think, act, or work together — not by a broken part or the weather alone.
Context Anchor
Seen in aeronautical decision-making, accident discussion, risk management, and instructor explanations of why pilots make unsafe choices.
Derivation
Human factors as a field studies how people interact with systems — their perception, judgment, fatigue, workload, and teamwork. Calling something 'human factors related' simply tags it as belonging to that category of causes.
Why Pilots Care
Most aviation accidents involve human factors related elements; addressing them improves safety and reduces pilot error.
Intuition Check
Human factors related does not simply mean “pilot error” or blame. It means human performance or human decisions were part of the chain that led to the result.
Example Sentence 1
The accident report concluded the cause was human factors related, citing fatigue and poor crew communication rather than any aircraft malfunction.
Example Sentence 2
The preflight briefing covered human factors related fatigue and decision-making under stress.