December 2020 Kitastrophe

December's theme is "Industrial and Technological" Disasters. This was tough! There were more than enough disasters, but were they technological or human error? Are they the same? Is a stress fracture due to a lack of technology or human error or just plain wear and tear? So for better or worse, I've come up with a list of events I think will work, but be sure to add your own and let us know how you plan to finish the year with Kitastrophe!

1917 The Halifax Explosion
1932-1968 Minimata Disaster-dumping of mercury in Sea of Japan
1957 The Windscale Fire-the worst nuclear disaster in UK history
1965 Northeast US/Canada Blackout
1967 The Silver Bridge Collapse-the worst US bridge disaster (spawned the Mothman myth)
1970's Love Canal Incident
1976 Hawk's Nest Tunnel Disaster--over 10 years 476 workers died of silicosis
1979-Three Mile Island Accident-Nuclear reactor melt-down
1981 Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse
1983 Soviet Nuclear Warning System False Alarm (reported US had fired a nuke)
1984 The Bhopal Disaster in India
1986 Challenger Explosion
1986 Chernobyl (modern day Ukraine), nuclear melt-down
1988 Eschede Train Derailment
1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
1990 AT&T Long Distance Collapses
1990's Pepsi Bottling Number Glitch-causes riots and a bombing in the Philippines
1996 Ariane 5 Rocket Explosion-software problem
1999 Mars Orbiter Lost in Space $193 million, software problem
2000 Concorde explosion on take off
2000 Kursk Submarine Disaster
2005 Sony DRM Malware Sony CD's installing unwanted malware on computers
2007 TJ Max Credit Card Breach-46 million Visa/Mastercard Numbers exposed to hackers
Mid 2000's Dell Computer Battery Explosions-made by Sony
2013 Target Breach, over 70 million credit card numbers were breached
2016 Galaxy Samsung Note 7 battery explosions (some on planes)

Don't forget the Wiki!

This is a theme that is close to my heart, given that I am a huge reader of human-disaster stories and have filled my parents' PVR with episodes of Mayday :)

The thing with human error is that nobody comes to work with the intention of being in an accident, and the things people do in an accident scenario are informed by the context in which they're operating: how the console is designed, how they've been trained, what else is going on around them, etc. "Human error" is a label applied in hindsight. Anyone using this label knows how the scenario will end; with hindsight it's very easy to say "Oh well they should have done this instead of that." The people in the situation didn't know they'd be in an accident, or what the ultimate outcome would be. Investigators have to be very careful to put themselves in the shoes of the people who were actually there and identify why the things these people did made sense at the time. Knowing why people did what they did enables investigators to pinpoint safety deficiencies and call for real systemic change, rather than just blaming the individuals involved.

If the process of investigating accidents fits within the parameters of this challenge, I'd recommend books such as The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error', by Sidney Dekker; Beyond the Black Box, by George Bibel; or Brace for Impact, by Peter Pigott.

For actual industrial/tech disasters, I'd recommend Into the Raging Sea, by Rachel Slade (the sinking of the El Faro, also very good on accident investigation); and The Last Nine Minutes, by Moira Johnston (a Douglas DC-10 explosive decompression).

I've also been wanting to read Midnight in Chernobyl forever, but haven't had the attention span :(

>2 rabbitprincess: I agree with you about human error, in the sense that I don't think most people ever think their actions might have dire consequences. However, I have read of cases where people cut corners on projects, purposefully, with not so good results. I'm thinking of the 1920's in New York City with Boss Tweed's Gang; using sub-par materials for construction, etc. I'm also thinking of people who ignore warning signs or indicators (like stress on a dam wall). In the case of the Silver Bridge collapse, I think most investigators deemed it a design flaw, although after the fact. To Forgive Design's author states, "failure all but inevitable. If ever a design was to blame for a failure, this was it". However, he does not blame the designer, rather says it is a cautionary tale about the future--which is how I like to think of all disasters. I'm a fan of The Silver Bridge material as I love the myth created with the collapse, Mothman. (And the fact I only live 2 hours away.)

And yes, I think investigations into catastrophes would fit nicely into this category! I'm going to look up several of your suggestions to see if my library has them. I am going to read The Hawk's Nest Incident: America's Worst Industrial Disaster.

>3 Tess_W: I must admit the phrase "human error" always makes me a bit annoyed because of its use in air crashes in particular, where it is used as a way to blame the pilot even though the pilot may have done everything they could to avert disaster.

It is true that people cut corners, although I'd argue that the cutting corners can be symptomatic of an organization that puts pressure on people to get the job done and a culture that rewards corner-cutters while punishing anyone who raises problems. It seemed like there was a bit of that in the Chernobyl disaster.

To Forgive Design sounds great! I'll have to look for that one. Thanks for mentioning it :)
Edit: YAY! The library has it! Just requested.

If you strike out on the Dekker and really want to read it, the publisher (Taylor and Francis) does often have ebook sales. I get emails from them every couple of weeks.

Oh and speaking of crash investigations, how could I forget Into the Abyss, by Carol Shaben, which is an excellent account of a plane crash in Alberta in the 1980s. Or The Map of My Dead Pilots, by Colleen Mondor, about the perils of flying in Alaska.

I think I myself will hop in this month and use this as my kick in the pants to finally finish Sidney Dekker's Safety Differently, which I think I've been reading since June.

The 2017 Grenfell Tower fire might be included in this category. The exterior cladding was to blame for the rapid spread of the fire, though whether this was found to be human error (negligence) or not was up for debate.

I need to figure out what I'll read for this. The weekend is over so it may be a few days before I get a chance to do so, but I will soon!

Finally took time to look for something. I didn't find anything obvious on my tbr, so I looked outside it. I'm likely going to go for this one:
Floodpath: The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th-Century... / Jon Wilkman

I read Midnight in Chernobyl. It was the scariest book I ever read. 560 pages 5 stars

2021 Yearlong: Epidemics and Pandemics is posted https://www.librarything.com/topic/327223

Floodpath: The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th-Century America... / Jon Wilkman
3.5 stars

In 1928 a fairly newly built dam near (and meant to serve) Los Angeles burst. The ensuing flood killed possibly around 500 people. This book looks at the building of the dam, the disaster itself, and the aftermath – the trial and the groups put together to try to figure out what went wrong. A long-time, popular man at the head of LA’s waterworks for decades was mostly fingered as being responsible, as he was the one mainly responsible for the building of the dam.

It was good. It was pretty slow to start, as the building of the dam wasn’t all that interesting to me. But it got better (that is, more interesting) once the flood actually happened. Even the follow-up in trying to figure out what happened kept my interest more than the initial building of it.