Nearly all airliner crashes are due to an unexpected confluence of multiple errors. If any one of the errors had gone right, nothing bad would have happened.
> If any one of the errors had gone right, nothing bad would have happened.
IIRC, a cascade of human errors is also what happened at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.
Wasn't there active attempts to hide the extent of the issue with Chernobyl which significantly worsened the damage? If so, that seems like saying there were cascading human errors in a murder-suicide. You're technically right on some level, but I wouldn't so much call that human error.
I'd classify humans hiding it as an additional human error.
The "swiss cheese" model of accidents. When all the holes line up...
It makes you wonder how many flights take off with several errors and mistakes every day.
Looks at dmesg... "Heh, how is this thing still running?"
I have no direct knowledge of this, but I'm sure it happens all the time. It's just that there's a lot of redundancy in all aspects of flight operations. For example, there are two pilots. One pushes the buttons, the other crosschecks it.
If you fly Air Canada, they'll have you believe that a single light in one of the three the restrooms is a critical safety concern, and that's the reason for your 6 hour delay without compensation.
If it's the smoke detector light, that is a critical safety concern.