Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface and Acknowledgment
- Acronyms and Abbreviations
- Introduction: How Teamwork Is More Important than Technical Prowess
- 1 Rethinking Normal Accidents and Human Error – A New View of Crisis Management
- 2 USS Greeneville – The Downside of Charismatic Leadership
- 3 The Hillsborough Football Disaster – Explosive Team Chemistry
- 4 American Airlines Flight 587 – Latent Failures Align
- 5 Bristol Royal Infirmary – The Price of Organizational Overreach
- 6 US Airways Flight 1549 – Thinking through Crisis
- 7 Team Resource Management
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - USS Greeneville – The Downside of Charismatic Leadership
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface and Acknowledgment
- Acronyms and Abbreviations
- Introduction: How Teamwork Is More Important than Technical Prowess
- 1 Rethinking Normal Accidents and Human Error – A New View of Crisis Management
- 2 USS Greeneville – The Downside of Charismatic Leadership
- 3 The Hillsborough Football Disaster – Explosive Team Chemistry
- 4 American Airlines Flight 587 – Latent Failures Align
- 5 Bristol Royal Infirmary – The Price of Organizational Overreach
- 6 US Airways Flight 1549 – Thinking through Crisis
- 7 Team Resource Management
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Commanding Officers have a lot of presence onboard submarines … and for the most part, their judgments are unquestioned. Their decisions are unquestioned. They are the authority at sea. If the CO says it is safe, who is going to question that is it not safe?
Lieutenant Junior Grade Michael John Coen, Officer of the Deck during USS Greeneville's collision with Ehime Maru
On February 9, 2001, the USS Greeneville, an American fast-attack nuclear submarine, collided with a Japanese fishing trawler, the Ehime Maru, during a routine training mission off the Hawaiian Islands. The accident occurred when the submarine, embarked for a community relations day, ascended like a rocket during an emergency surfacing demonstration for sixteen civilian dignitaries and a visiting admiral. The Greeneville's powerful steel rudder, designed to surface through thick ice, destroyed the fishing boat, sinking it in less than ten minutes and killing nine crewmembers (see Figure 2.1).
Two extensive federal investigations, one by the National Transportation Safety Board and the other by a U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry, concluded that “the responsibility for collision avoidance rests solely on the submerged submarine.” Moreover, the Navy blamed the Greeneville captain, Commander Scott D. Waddle, for “the failure of the ship's watch team to work together” to avoid the collision.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Thinking Through CrisisImproving Teamwork and Leadership in High-Risk Fields, pp. 14 - 33Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011