*4.1. Challenges and Limitations*

A number of challenges and limitations were encountered within the study. These were in relation to data collection and analysis, SME survey, and the MxFACS taxonomy as a whole.

### 4.1.1. Using the Selected Data Sources

One limitation of the data collection for this study was the sourcing of credible aircraft maintenance events. The data was collected from English language databases, and relied on English translations of investigation reports being available where the investigating body was not English-speaking. This means that the dataset, although very much international, may not be 100% globally representative.

The broad nature of the databases used to collect the data was a further challenge to the data collection process. Manual extraction of maintenance-related accidents and serious incidents was the only means of identifying these events, amongs<sup>t</sup> a vast quantity of events which were irrelevant to the study.
