The use of the term “human factors” in the context of aviation maintenance engineering is relatively new. Aircraft accidents such as that of the Aloha aircraft in the USA in 1988 and the BAC 1-11 windscreen accident in the UK in June 1990 brought the need to address human factors issues in this environment into sharp focus. This does not imply that human factors issues were not present before these dates, nor that human error did not contribute to other incidents; merely that it took an accident to draw attention to human factor problems and potential solutions.