cheaper building method ? And then they use that cheaper material , and it ’ s fine . So next time they do it again .
And again . Until – one day – it isn ’ t fine . Here ’ s a scary list of incidents that happened just like that : On 29 June 2003 , a balcony collapsed during a party in an apartment building in Chicago , killing 13 people and seriously injuring 57 others . The building managers blamed the fact that there were too many people on the balcony because – hey – just because a balcony is big enough to hold twenty people , it doesn ’ t mean it ’ s strong enough to do so .
On 23 May 2004 , shortly after the inauguration of terminal 2E of Paris ’ s Charles de Gaul Airport , part of the roof collapsed , killing four people and injuring three more .
On 27 May 2017 , a parking garage at Eindhoven Airport – the second-largest airport in the Netherlands – collapsed due to a construction error . Fortunately with no injuries or fatalities – let ’ s end this list on a relatively positive note .
The engineering and technical specifics differ , but the ultimate cause of all these disasters is the normalisation of deviance .
So how do we un-normalise deviance ?
What made Vaughan ’ s study of the Challenger disaster so meaningful is that she concentrated not on what decisions had been made , and who made them , but on how those decisions ended up as seemingly inevitable . She emphasised that the ‘ fault ’ lay with the organisational culture , rather than with any one person or group of people .
• Don ’ t use past success to redefine acceptable performance .
• For any system , procedure , material or process , insist on ‘ proof of safety ’, rather than being satisfied with ‘ no evidence of risk ’ ( which is not the same as ‘ evidence of no risk ’).
• Value diversity – appoint people with opposing views or ask everyone to voice their opinion before discussion . And then pay heed . One way of ensuring that lone voices of caution get heard is to make decisions by consensus , and to make it clear that it is safe to hold up a decision if you believe there is a good reason .
• Avoid conflict of interests – keep safety programmes independent from those activities they evaluate .
On Monday 2 January 2006 , in Bad Reichenhall , Bavaria , Germany , the roof of a popular ice rink collapsed , killing 15 people and injuring 32 more . Many survivors were trapped for more than 24 hours in the rubble in sub-zero temperatures , while rescuers worked to free them .
On 28 January 2006 , the roof on the Katowice Trade Hall in Poland collapsed during the 56th National Exhibition of Carrier Pigeons , killing 65 people , and injuring more . The number of avian fatalities is unrecorded , but two pigeons were found alive after being trapped for 22 days . The designers and management of the building spent a bit more time than that ‘ trapped ’ in prison .
Sadly , NASA did not learn much from the Challenger accident . Seventeen years later the Space Shuttle Columbia burned up as it re-entered the earth ’ s atmosphere , killing all seven astronauts on board . And , yes , NASA knew that there was a problem with the heat shield because some of the insulation had peeled off on previous missions , but – well – it all turned out fine in the end , didn ’ t it ? Not really .
Since the Columbia disaster , NASA has drawn up a list of recommendations that can be paraphrased as :
• Set the standard – executives breaking or bending rules will set the tone for the company ’ s culture , and make it easier for others to justify their actions .
Of course , NASA ’ s list was too late to save the shuttle programme – and also too late to save Rick D . Husband , William C . McCool , Michael P . Anderson , Ilan Ramon , Kalpana Chawla , David M . Brown and Laurel Blair Salton Clark . Yes , it ’ s often real people who end up paying the price for corporate deviance . estate-living . co . za
Two people died , and 21 were injured when a pedestrian bridge collapsed onto the M1 in Johannesburg on 14 October 2015 . Remember that ?
On Valentine ’ s Day 2004 , the roof collapsed onto Moscow ’ s Africa-themed Transvaal Park entertainment centre and water park , killing 28 people and injuring in excess of 190 . ( I confess , I am intrigued , and would have loved to have seen the Russian interpretation of ‘ the Transvaal ’. The mind fairly boggles .)
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