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How do people contribute to the catastrophic breakdown of complex automated technologies? As scientific knowledge progresses and technological advances are made, greater dependence is placed upon automated systems and their complexities are, necessarily, increased. Whilst the systems themselves may be rigorously tested to ensure they operate correctly, errors can enter the system via the weak link in the chain - the human designers and operators. Unlike the machines that they operate, humans are not very good at doing the same task for a prolonged period, or at doing two things at once, and their performance becomes impaired if asked to do so, e.g. Casali & Wierewith 1984. Human errors therefore become almost an inevitability in a complex system and this has lead to much research into the causal factors behind errors and new ways of implementation to minimise their occurrence. Reason (1990) distinguishes between two types of error; latent errors, problems...

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