A comprehensive analysis of occupational health and safety risks in civil aviation cargo: Insights from FF-DEMATEL
Esmagül Hakkıoğlu Tüylüoğlu, Emine Can, Serap Tepe, Serkan Eti, Ahmet ÇabukBackground
Civil aviation cargo operations have expanded rapidly, but the occupational health and safety risks faced by cargo workers are still rarely examined through an integrated causal framework that captures chemical, ergonomic, psychosocial, and operational exposures together.
Objective
This study aims to identify, prioritize, and interpret the causal relationships among occupational health and safety risks in civil aviation cargo operations from a worker-centered perspective.
Methods
The study employs a comprehensive dataset drawn from industry professionals and applies the Fermatean Fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (FF-DEMATEL) method. This approach enables the analysis of complex interrelationships among risk factors, offering a systematic framework for understanding the dynamics of aviation cargo hazards. FF-DEMATEL was applied to 16 cargo-related risk factors evaluated by three occupational safety experts. Expert weights were derived through a machine-learning-based dimensionality reduction procedure using age, occupational safety experience, and firm tenure, enabling the model to reflect both interdependence and expert heterogeneity.
Results
The analysis reveals a network of critical risks, including improper cargo loading, closed storage conditions, hazardous substances, and unpredictable customer demands. The FF-DEMATEL method identifies both cause and effect relationships among these factors, highlighting which risks exert the greatest influence on overall safety outcomes. The model provides a clear hierarchy of risk sources that require targeted intervention. The leading weighted risks were sabotage, time pressure, incorrect loading of cargo, customer-related uncertainty, and third stakeholder effects. Prominence values showed that sabotage and time pressure were the dominant drivers of the system, while incorrect loading of cargo emerged mainly as an effect factor. A robustness check based on row sums of the normalized and total relation matrices preserved the same upper-tier risk set, supporting the consistency of the prioritization.
Conclusions
The findings indicate that security management, workload and schedule control, loading discipline, and stakeholder coordination should be prioritized together rather than addressed separately. By translating causal risk interactions into concrete priorities, the study offers practical guidance for improving worker protection and operational resilience in civil aviation cargo systems. The findings underscore the necessity of implementing proactive risk management strategies in air cargo operations. Emphasizing the role of advanced analytical methods and a strong safety culture, the study offers actionable recommendations to industry stakeholders.