Unfair to single them out. Submarines sink regularly, often due to human error. Grounding, collisions, even arson. Periscope hatches left open, oxygen ports closed.
Ever drive off and leave your trunk lid open? Forget a kid at the mall? Not call your Mom on Mothers' Day? Then you understand how easy it is for human error to occur.
Yes, people do make mistakes; often. Airline pilots have long checklists of things they have to do before taking off, and more checklists for dealing with problems that inevitably crop up.
Sure, but that's why modern cars have sensors and warnings when you accidentally leave a door open or don't use the seatbelt.
If leaving a hatch open causes one year of repairs and it contains a nuclear reactor maybe some automated sensors or checklists would be quite sensible.
Human error that can be easily predicted and fixed with tech is kind of a design issue though. Shouldn't those all have sensors on them to stop this? People use Google calendar to remember what day is Mother's day, submarines can do the same.
Really all human error that has happened before is predictable. My rule for myself is to assume any mistake I've ever made, or imagined making, is possible.
I suspect we are coming at the same thing from different angles.
You can’t have a culture that tolerates accidents like this, so get some systems in place to prevent them. It’s not about one person or piece of equipment. Swiss cheese model etc.
You said something quite different sounding than here. Here you mention systems to prevent mistakes. Your original post said
you aren’t allowed to make mistakes of this magnitude. It really is that simple.
That does not mention prevention systems and instead put the blame squarely on the person making the mistake. They "simply should not have made the mistake, duh!"
Someone has allowed some crap systems to exist by the time something like this happens.
You’re right that my initial post makes it sound like I blame one person, and I do. However it isn’t just the person who didn’t close the hatch. I blame the whole command structure and particularly those at the top of it.
Ever drive off and leave your trunk lid open? Forget a kid at the mall? Not call your Mom on Mothers' Day? Then you understand how easy it is for human error to occur.