Despite increasingly stringent maritime safety measures, many accidents still occur. Many accidents are caused by human factors, which have often been neglected in the past, as the development of technology has focused more on correcting technical errors, and human factors have remained in the background and relatively unexplored. Human factors can be studied, categorized and analysed in different ways. The system that has certainly proven to be quite effective is the Human Factor Analysis and Classification System. An effective fault study system allows these to be rectified in the future and can reduce the number of accidents. The HFACS system was developed from Reason's model of human error for the study of military aviation accidents, and today it is implemented in various fields, including maritime. It provides a flexible framework that sorts human factors into layers from hidden conditions to preconditions for dangerous acts and ultimately to the dangerous acts themselves that led to the accident. It can be carried out for one accident or for a group of accidents and combined with other systems, which allows the acquisition of useful knowledge based on which measures can be introduced to improve safety.
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