Module 1, Lesson 3 - Example of Titanic

Although it has been nearly 90 years since the disaster, thanks to the film industry, the story of the Titanic is fresh in our minds.

The story of the Titanic's demise in April of 1912 provides an excellent example of latent error.

Although active error was involved, it should be remembered that all of the conditions that led to the loss of life on the Titanic were the result of actions and decisions made long before the Titanic ever encountered the iceberg.

Two active errors were involved in the sinking of the Titanic:

The Officer of the Deck who had the watch cut the engines and steered away from the iceberg, which was not the correct action for a ship of that size.

Captain Smith was operating the ship at too high a speed in response to a challenge to break the existing Atlantic crossing record.


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