Definition
In aviation, human resources refers to all the people and human-based assets a pilot can draw on during a flight to help operate the aircraft safely. This includes the pilot themselves, other crew members, air traffic controllers, flight service specialists, dispatchers, maintenance personnel, and even passengers when they can provide useful information. It is one of the resource categories considered in Crew Resource Management (CRM) and Single-Pilot Resource Management (SRM).
Plain English
The people you can rely on, talk to, or get help from before and during a flight -- including yourself, other pilots, controllers, ground staff, and anyone else who can support safe decision-making.
Context Anchor
Seen in aeronautical decision-making discussions, especially when pilots are taught to use all available help instead of trying to solve every problem alone.
Derivation
Human comes from a Latin word meaning “of people.” Resource comes from an older word meaning something you can draw on for help. Together, the phrase points to people as a usable source of help.
Why Pilots Care
Effective use of human resources reduces errors and improves safety by drawing on collective knowledge and support.
Intuition Check
Human resources does not mean the company HR department here. In this aviation context, it means people who are available to help the pilot make or carry out a safe decision.
Example Sentence 1
When the weather started to deteriorate, the pilot used available human resources by contacting flight service for an updated briefing and asking ATC for vectors around the cells.
Example Sentence 2
Briefing passengers before takeoff is one way to make use of human resources in an emergency.