Active errors occur at the sharp end of the process . The effect of active errors are felt almost immediately . Active errors could be ; making a course change at the wrong position , pushing an incorrect button , forgetting to close a valve . Latent errors occur at the blunt end . These are errors , removed in both time and space from the operators at the sharp end , that may lie dormant within the system for a long time . Examples of latent errors may include ; equipment design flaws that make the human-machine interface less than intuitive , or organizational flaws , such as staffing and training decisions made for fiscal reasons increasing the likelihood of errors . Latent errors are often unrecognized and have the capacity to result in multiple types of active errors . Analyses of major accidents involving many different areas of society indicate that latent errors pose the greatest risk to safety in a complex system . Such accidents include Three Mile Island accident , Heysel Stadium disaster , Bhopal disaster , Chernobyl disaster , Space Shuttle '' Challenger '' disaster , King 's Cross fire , '' Piper Alpha '' and MS '' Herald of Free Enterprise ''
Bhopal disaster
Bhopal disaster
Maritime Resource Management