Samantha Jackson and Gemma Read - Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) safety

Gemma Read from the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems (UniSC) chats to Samantha Jackson about Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) safety.  

Samantha Jackson is a registered psychologist, human factors professional, and PhD candidate. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), a Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology)(Honours), and a Postgraduate Certificate in Safety and Accident Investigation.  

 She served in the Australian Army for 24 years, holding both generalist and specialist officer roles across full-time and part-time service. Her career spanned multiple domains, including communications and information systems, aviation, health, and policy. In her final role, she served within Army Aviation’s Psychology and Human Factors team, where she provided specialist advice on system safety, human performance, role suitability, occupational selection, task and systems analysis, incident investigation, and fatigue risk management. 

 She is currently pursuing a PhD at the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Her research aims to enhance the safety performance of Australia’s Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) by applying systems thinking through a many-models approach. Specifically, she aims to identify key leverage points within the sociotechnical safety management system to optimise its overall effectiveness. 

 Associate Professor Gemma Read and Professor Paul Salmon are supervising Samantha’s research. Gemma and Samantha discuss her recent study which analysed 14 RPAS incident investigation reports. The article is available open access here:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003687025000043 

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