The explosion was fueled by nearly five hundred pounds of propellant, and in a fraction of a second the shock wave reached the bunker where the Navy crew and two Sandians sat transfixed before the remote video monitors. In several seconds the flames began to subside, showing that the test site had been swept clean of surrounding apparatus. Had the explosion not occurred, had the Navy's investigators been vindicated, the battleships would have returned to the Fleet with their archaic guns and procedures still poised to booby trap the unwary. Yet the experiment merely demonstrated that the explosion could occur. Sophisticated weapon systems, complex computer applications, and elegant software all may be more chic than the brute strength and awkwardness of long gun systems.
Failure is failure, damage is damage, injury is injury and death is death.
Operational system safety analyses are the key to minimizing operational risks. Post-mishap investigations must prioritize identifying what happened and why the failure and its effects were not identified by earlier scrutiny. It's the only way we can improve system safety's quest for hazard and risk prevention. Since 1977 he has been a consulting forensic engineer, and devotes much of his current involvement to improving quality controls for investigation methodologies.