Kipersztok is described a diagnosis decision support
approach using Bayesian belief networks for facilitating
airplane maintenance at an airport gate. The approach
combines engineering and mechanic’s knowledge with
statistical component reliability data. It is argued that Bayesian
network contain a rich representation language that permits to
encode the different types of knowledge needed for airplane
diagnosis. The high degree of system integration in an airplane
typically results in ambiguous diagnoses. The inference engine
of a Bayesian network provides a consistent probability update
mechanism to help disambiguate between the possible causes
of a failure. Sensitivity analysis of the networks to noisy priors
justifies the use of simple probability models from Mean Time
Between Unscheduled Removal data, and also shows
reasonable robustness of the network diagnosis due to a
reasonably limited sensitivity of the network to prior noise