SH279: The Tower Was Already Full of Holes

About this episode

This episode discusses how diving incidents are often misattributed to individual mistakes rather than systemic issues.

This episode looks at how diving incidents are often explained by blaming the last person involved, much like blaming the person who pulls the final brick from an already unstable Jenga tower. While that person may be the last to act, many other factors—such as environment, equipment, training, social pressure, and organisational practices—may already have weakened the system. Through several real diving examples, the episode shows how accidents usually develop from a combination of conditions rather than a single mistake. It also explains why people are quick to blame individuals: it is easier, it protects our sense of safety, and it is what we are used to seeing in the media and official reports. Instead of asking what someone “should have done,” the more useful question is how their actions made sense at the time with the information and resources they had. By shifting from judgement to curiosity and looking at the wider system, divers and instructors can learn more from incidents and improve both their technical and non-technical skills to make future dives safer. Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/and-still-the-tower-is-standing Links: “Blaming a bad apple is…

People in this episode

Host: Gareth Lock

Topics covered

• diving incidents
• human factors
• systemic failures
• accident analysis
• safety in diving

Keywords

• diving
• accidents
• human factors
• safety
• training
• environment
• social pressure

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