The Human Contribution

Many books on risk assessment regard the human being as a hazard or unsafe system component that can result in catastrophic breakdown. This book provides the opposite point of view, documenting cases where human beings have acted in a heroic manner. The first part of the book does analyse unsafe acts and accidents, including the nature and varieties of human error such as the violation of laws and procedures. The really interesting part comes with the case histories relating a range of heroic recoveries involving training and leadership, professionalism, skill and luck, and inspired improvisations. These include aeroplane incidents, military strategies and a fascinating account of the role of Captain Rostron of the Carpathia in the rescuing of survivors from the Titanic. The author details the extraordinary sequence of instructions he gave in order to maximise the chances of recovering passengers, at considerable calculated risk to his own ship. It was an amazing demonstration of logistical genius. He concludes that the most important contributing factor is having the right people in the right place at the right time. It all shows how important training is.