Mind The Gap: Episode 23: Challenges for Humans in the Loop

This is the second of two episodes with MIT Professor David Mindell.  In these conversations we are exploring the detailed realities of “human in the loop” systems.  In the first session we learned about the Apollo Program’s lunar landing control system.  In this episode we are going to explore a contemporary human plus computer control system failure involving a US Navy warship.

We will be looking at a collision in the Singapore Strait in the pre-dawn darkness of August 21, 2017.  The National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, determined that the causes of the collision between the destroyer USS John S McCain and the tanker Alnic MC included a lack of effective operational oversight, insufficient training, and inadequate bridge operating procedures.  Also contributing to the accident were the McCain bridge team’s loss of situational awareness and failure to follow steering loss emergency procedures.