Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology; An Inside Look at Catastrophes and Why They Happen

by James R. Chiles

Book Overview

On July 25, 2000, a small piece of debris on the runway at a Paris airport caused a tire to blow out on an Air France Concorde during its take off. A heavy slab of rubber that spun off from a tire created a shock wave in a wing tank, which burst open and sent fuel streaming into an engine intake. As flames trailed two hundred feet behind, the aircraft rolled out of control. The crash killed all 109 people on board and 4 more on the ground. The tragedy...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0066620813
• ISBN13: 9780066620817
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Harper Business
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Excellent General Introduction to Systems Safety

'Inviting Disaster' is a compelling and easy to read book. It is an introduction to accident theory for generalists, and is as interesting (perhaps more so) to nontechnical people as it is to engineers and the like. James Chiles discusses several major accidents (Challenger, Three Mile Island, Ocean Ranger, etc.) in well executed chapters with substantial background from previous precursor accidents or incidents. One reviewer seems to believe that this is a flaw, but I disagree. The reviewer seems to believe, for instance, that the R101 (a dirigible, not a blimp, as the reviewer wrongly states) is totally irrelevant to Challenger. In fact R101 was the Challenger of it's day, and the social, managerial and technological pressures that ultimately led to the R101 disaster ultimately led to Challenger as well. Chiles ties this theme together in a seamless manner in chapter after chapter. This book is not a rigorous technical analysis of the individual disasters with the engineering and math associated with formal inquiries and technical (AAIB, NTSB, etc.) investigations. What it does better than any of the technical inquiries could ever do, though, is make a clear a compelling case for the problems that led to each of the accidents covered, treating man-machine interface issues with particular grace.I have long been associated with the more technical aspects of accident investigation and safety systems, but have to say that while there are more technical accounts available for all of these accidents, if you are looking for an entry level (but complete) overview of accidents and systems safety, you can't go wrong with this book.

An up close and human look at some infamous foul ups

If you want to know why the Concorde crashed or how things got so fouled up at Chernobyl or what went wrong at Three Mile Island, this very readable book is a good place to start. Chiles gives us diagrams, step-by-step chronologies, and a very human narrative to illuminate these and scores of other technological disasters in a way that makes it excruciatingly clear that most of them could have been prevented.What these disasters have in common is human error, of course, but Chiles reveals that there were also foreshadowings and warnings of the horrors to come in the form of cracks, sagging roofs, parts that didn't quite fit, maintenance shortcuts taken, capacity limits reached, etc., that should have tipped off those in the know that something terrible was about to happen. Additionally, virtually all of the disasters happened because more than one thing went wrong.Among the horror stories told in detail are:The harrowing tale of the sinking of the drill rig Ocean Ranger in a North Atlantic gale in 1982, a disaster caused in part because somebody forgot to close the shutters on portlight windows;The Challenger space shuttle blow-up, which Chiles compares with the crash of the British hydrogen-filled dirigible R.101in 1921. Both were "megaprojects born out of great national aspirations"and both went forward "despite specific, written warnings of danger." (p. 67);The Hubble Space Telescope fiasco in which a lens is incorrectly ground thereby partially "blinding" the telescope, a multi-billion dollar error that could have been prevented with just a little testing. In this chapter (subtitled: "Testing is Such a Bother") Chiles shows how disasters happen because proper tests are simply not performed;An out of control police van that killed parade watchers in Minneapolis in 1998 when an off duty police officer not completely in the driver's seat inexplicably gunned the engine instead of hitting the brakes. This accident was in part caused by an alteration to "Circuit 511" that controls both the brake lights and (unbeknownst to the mechanics) an electric shift lock on the vehicle. Chiles notes that "The odds of pedal error go up when drivers are elderly, and also when drivers turn around in the seat to back their cars up." (p. 242);The explosion at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India in 1984--"the worst chemical disaster of all time"--that killed thousands of people. Chiles calls this a case of "Robbing The Pillar," a reference to the practice in coal minds of mining the coal pillars holding up the walls of the mines.This is a book for the engineer in your soul, a treatise for the worry-wart on your shoulder, a recounting of responsibility for the accountant in your heart, and cautionary tales for the fear monger in the pit of your stomach. Chiles is gentle in focusing blame, but he does indeed name names and point fingers. He also gives us a prescription for preventing future disasters. In addition to the need to perform regular maintena

Navigating The Machine Frontier

Inviting Disaster by James R. Chiles is required reading for the devout Luddite, devout technophile, and everybody else in-between. I make this statement in light of the fact that humanity will probably not return voluntarily to the stone age, nor do we want turn the planet into a cyberdesert, where humans subsist on synthetics and tend to the machines. Admitting that accidents will happen at the machine frontier, Chiles gives us a thorough look at engineering and machine disasters and near misses from the history of the machine age, showing us how we can learn from our mistakes and reduce the number of accidents to a minimum. Well-known disasters and near misses like Three Mile Island, Challenger, and Bhopal, and lesser known ones like the Citicorp Center and the R.101 airship, provide the real life lessons that, if heeded, will allow us to develop a society that can handle its own machine creations with a minimum of trouble. Normal folks who often find an engineer's desire to 'test to destruction' unsettling, should come away with a better understanding of how engineering-at-its-best works, and why engineers aren't sick puppies for pushing their creations to the limit. Chiles writes as a technical writer and not as an engineer, which lends to the readability of the text. He has done his homework, visiting the places he writes about, giving us firsthand accounts from the machine frontier. Many, many people should read this wonderful book, from the everyday Joe or Josephine who wants to understand the wider world of technology, to the Science, Technology, and Society class that is looking for a balanced view of this important subject. I highly recommend this book.

Recipes for Disaster

"Inviting Disaster" is a gripping history of technical hubris.It catalogues cases where arrogance, ignorance and bad habits have led to major loss of life and property. It should be on themandatory reading list for engineers, designers and projectmanagers. I thoroughly enjoyed the book although dismayed at thenumerous cases where a little cogent thought would have averted tragedy. By the way, I have been involved in aviation for 50 years, 26 as a fighter pilot, the remainder as a commercial pilot, instructor, A & P mechanic and college professor. Mr. Chiles relates his message in a most interesting and technically accurate style. I read the book in one sitting.

Required reading for the entire planet

James Chiles' new book is a welcome addition to the pantheon of engineering disaster chronicles. You should already have read Perrow's Normal Accidents, Vaughn's The Challenger Launch Decision, and Sagan's Limits of Safety. If you haven't, go read them now, I'll wait. Ok, next you have to read Chiles' book.Inviting Disaster covers some of the same incidents that are featured prominently in those others, and Chiles adds new insights and observations with his trenchant observations and outstanding writing. But where he really shines is his ability to spot near-misses, close calls that the public never knew about (but which still cause nightmares for those who wish they didn't.) There are many more near-misses than calamities, and access to some of them is a major addition to our overall engineering knowledge. This book's a great read.