Alternative explaination for any one of the follow technological failures - Essay Example

Swissair 111’s electrical catastrophe “involved the wiring in the entertainment system located near the cockpit” (Scarry, p.1). However, military submarines and planes close by are believed to have generated electromagnetic transmissions that impacted the Swissair flight. The purpose of this paper is to select an alternative method of explaining technological failure. Thus, how Charles Perrow’s theory of normal accidents explaining the Three Mile Island Disaster can be used to explain the Swissair 111 accident which took place on the 2nd of September, 1998 will be examined.

It will be investigated how according to Perrow’s theory failures interact with each other, and the tight coupling of the elements of the advanced technological system further multiply the chances of disasters taking place on unprecedented scales. It will be seen that instead of providing an alternative explanation, Perrow’s theory basically enhances one’s understanding of the technological failure of Swissair 111, explaining the reason for the crash to take place, as an inevitable or ‘normal’ accident.

Apart from the original theory of electromagnetic interference that caused the crash of Swissair 111, Perrow’s theory of normal accidents that explains the Three Mile Island Disaster can be used for elucidating the Swissair accident. According to Perrow, when system characteristics have interactive complexity and tight coupling, the result will be an inevitable system accident or normal accident. “The odd term ‘normal accident’ is meant to signal that, given the system characteristics, multiple and unexpected interactions of failures are inevitable” (Perrow, p.5). This inevitability of failure is inherent to the system.

Although system accidents are uncommon, they can produce catastrophes. The characteristics of the system make it innately vulnerable to accidents, hence the accidents are described as ‘normal’. Thus, the complexity of the