Work-related nonfatal injuries in Alaska’s aviation industry, 2000–2013

Abstract

Aviation is a critical component of life in Alaska, connecting communities off the road system across the state. Crash-related fatalities in the state are well understood and many intervention efforts have been aimed at reducing aircraft crashes and resulting fatalities; however, nonfatal injuries among workers who perform aviation-related duties have not been studied in Alaska. This study aimed to characterize hospitalized nonfatal injuries among these workers using data from the Alaska Trauma Registry. During 2000–2013, 28 crash-related and 89 non-crash injuries were identified, spanning various occupational groups. Falls were a major cause of injuries, accounting for over half of non-crash injuries. Based on the study findings, aviation stakeholders should review existing policies and procedures regarding aircraft restraint systems, fall protection, and other injury prevention strategies. To supplement these findings, further study describing injuries that did not result in hospitalization is recommended.

Workers’ compensation injury claims of aviation industry worker injuries in Alaska, 2014–2015

“…Injury patterns were generally similar across occupational groups. These 3 injury event types were also identified as the top hospitalised injury events by Case et al [16], but in that previous research falls were the most frequent, followed by struck by/caught between and overexertion injuries [16]. The different order of frequency is likely explained by the different inclusion criteria for each study, with the Alaska Trauma Registry requiring hospitalisation for inclusion as a case.…”

“…Potential aviation-related claims were identified using keyword searches of the narrative field, aviation-specific NAICS codes (e.g., NAICS code 481*, 611,512), and NAICS codes of industries likely to occur in an aviation setting (Appendix A) [23]. NAICS codes and keywords from the previously published Alaska Trauma Registry study were used as these NAICS codes and keywords were determined to be sufficiently broad to identify as many relevant claims as possible [16]. Potential claims were then manually reviewed independently by 2 reviewers to determine if aviation-related.…”

“…They most frequently led to Sprains, strains, tears but were also the most frequent cause of fractures. Case et al's [16] study of the Alaska Trauma Registry found that Falls, Slips, Trips were the most common injury event among aviation workers hospitalised for work-related injuries, with most resulting in fractures [16]. Both studies indicate that Falls, Slips, Trips frequently result in serious injury and warrant special attention when developing interventions.…”

“…However, pilots only comprise a small percentage of the aviation workforce. There are approximately 20 workers involved in the preparation of an average 37-seat regional flight in Alaska, with only 3 being crewmembers onboard the aircraft during flight [16]. Examples of other workers involved directly in servicing the aircraft are ramp/baggage/cargo agents, fuellers, and mechanics/maintenance workers.…”

“…Our study builds upon previous research which used trauma registry data to characterise work-related hospitalised nonfatal injuries in Alaska's aviation industry [16]. The use of workers' compensation (WC) data allows us to identify and characterise a comprehensive range of work-related nonfatal injuries including less severe injuries that do not result in hospitalisation and were therefore not captured in the previous study [16,18]. Although WC data is primarily collected for administrative purposes, it has also been used effectively for occupational injury surveillance [19,20].…”