摘要：Commercial pilots and air traffic controllers interviewed for a human factors research project were united in painting a pessimistic picture of the direction of aviation safety. This finding comes from the analysis of interviews with twenty-three aviation professionals from four European countries. According to these front- line operators, while aviation statistics may still portray a healthy industry, the operational reality is another matter altogether: the negative impact of economic scarcity and the ever-increasing focus on profits has reduced safety through changes in management practices, organisational structure, and regulations. The interviews were conducted in the context of a larger study, aimed at mapping the variation in safety perspectives across the aviation industry. The results of an opinion survey revealed that the largest variation in perspective was related to the national culture of the respondent. Profession was the second largest factor correlated to variations of the results. Overall, the variations did not seem dramatically different, but they were statistically significant. The largest spread in the results was between Northern Europeans and Human Factors professionals on one end of the spectrum (rejecting the traditional safety perspective), and Southern Europeans, South Americans, and aircraft mechanics on the other (agreeing with the traditional safety perspective). The qualitative interviews with pilots and controllers from two Northern and two Southern European countries were carried out in order to better understand the results of the survey.
