Human Factors in Scuba Diving
https://jcaelitescuba.com/videos/The-Human-Factors-Academy_4.MP4
September 20-21, 2014
Gareth Lock, Ph.D. Candidate
https://www.humanfactors.academy/pages/nts-diving



Online Survey and Results
 1,415 surveys started, 775 completed
  10 weeks data collection period
 n=332 (43%) didn't have an 'incident'
 41% respondents were instructors
  20% OC Tech, CCR, or CD/IT



Type of Diving When Incident Occurred
 OC Rec: 67%
 OC Tech: 19%
 CCR: 11%
 OC Rec Instruction: 1%
 OC Tech Instruction: 1%
 CCR Instruction: 1%



The areas with the highest proportions where action had not been take were:
  61.1% (n=2,164) who had not practiced dropping weights
  28.6% (n=1,012) who had dived without practicing a safety drill
  19.4% (n=687) who had continued to dive when below 50 bar (500psi)
  17.5% (n=620) who had not had their own equipment serviced in the last 12 months
  12.4% (n=437) who had dived beyond their maximum depth



Major Factors #1
 complacency: 44%
 overconfidence: 39%
 error in judgment due to lack of experience: 36%
 inexperience in that environment: 35%
 poor and/or failure to communicate: 33%
 unfamiliar conditions/environment: 28%
 haste: 26%
 problems involving use of equipment: 24%
 poor decision to continue dive: 22%
 misplaced motivation (goal orientated diving): 22%
 failure to use all resources (not using teamwork): 20%
 lack of awareness of buddy leading to unplanned separation: 19%
 normalization of deviance / external motivation factors: 19%



Major Factors #2
 misjudged gas consumption: 18%
 direct contravention of training: 18%
 failure of 'leadership': 18%
 incorrect weighting: 15%
 poor buoyancy control (ascent): 13%



Heuristics (problem solving)
 "normally OK, no need to check. trust me": 12%
 "looks fine to me": 9%
 "not really important": 8%