Shows / Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to Diving
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to Diving
Human factors is a critical topic within the world of SCUBA diving, scientific diving, military diving, and commercial diving. This podcast is a mixture of interviews and 'shorts' which are audio versions of the weekly blog from The Human Diver. Each month we will look to have at least one interview and one case study discussion where we look at an event in detail and how human factors and non-technical skills contributed (or prevented) it from happening in the manner it did.
Episodes
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH320: When you say it is easy to call a dive... If you've got POWER, it is easier
This blog explores why telling divers to “speak up” or “call the dive” is not enough to create a culture where people actually feel able to do it. Speaking up…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH319: 7. Metabolising Experience: How Experience Becomes Learning
This blog looks at what happens between having an experience and actually learning from it, particularly when that experience is frightening or traumatic. Our…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH318: Technical Skills Are Not Enough: Human Factors in Diving and the Difference Between Chaos and Coordination
This blog compares two diving emergencies at the same dive centre to show why technical competence alone is not enough. In the first incident, a diver…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH317: 6. Social Media Isn't Broken. It's Doing Exactly What It Was Designed to Do.
This episode explores how social media shapes the way the diving community responds to serious incidents. When an accident happens, discussions can quickly…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH316: Quit while you still can
When should a diver call off a dive, even when everything seems to be going well? Using the 1996 Everest disaster as a starting point, this episode explores…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH315: The Insurance Illusion
This episode explores what diving insurance can—and cannot—do, drawing on insights from two highly experienced dive insurance underwriters. Insurance can help…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH314: 5. Human Factors as an Operating System
In this episode, Brent Webb explores the idea that Human Factors should be more than a collection of concepts or courses—it can become the “operating system”…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH313: 4. Am I Enough?
In this episode, Connor Tate shares her experience of attending the Human Factors in Diving Conference while struggling with imposter syndrome as a researcher…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH312: Your Body Can't Cash the Cheque Your Ego Is Writing
We explore how capable, motivated divers can gradually push beyond safe limits when their environment rewards risk-taking and treats near misses as successes…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH311: 3. Don’t Wait - Learn From Everyday Work Using HOP Principles
This episode explores Human and Organizational Performance (HOP), an approach to safety that starts with the idea that people will always make mistakes, so we…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH310: 2. More Than a Deep Dive: What a WWII Bomber Recovery Can Teach Us About Human Factors
This episode explores what really makes complex technical diving successful: not just helium, decompression and equipment, but the people using them. Using the…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH309: Change around Safety Culture is Really Hard
In this episode, Gareth Lock reflects on why improving diving safety requires more than telling people to follow the rules. Drawing on his experience in…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH308: We Know, and We Say Nothing
This episode explores why experienced divers still die in situations that seem predictable, using the tragic 2026 Maldives cave accident as a starting point…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH307: 1. The 2026 HF in Diving Conference - What Did You Miss?
This episode explores how a restorative just culture can help the diving community respond to incidents in a way that promotes learning rather than blame…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH306: Restorative Just Culture: Repairing Trust After an Event
This episode explores the difference between a retributive approach to diving incidents, which focuses on blame and punishment, and a restorative just culture…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH305: Cause Reason. Excuse. Three Words Doing Three Very Different Things.
This episode explores an important distinction that is often missed when discussing diving incidents: the difference between a cause, a reason, and an excuse…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH304: Why Investigations Stop Where They Stop
This episode explores why accident investigations often stop long before they uncover the full picture. Drawing on research from safety science, it argues that…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH303: The Structure of This Diving Tragedy Was Not Abnormal. The Scale Was.
This episode explores why diving accidents are so often explained by individual mistakes instead of the wider conditions that made those mistakes possible…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH302: Why Rules Get Broken. Does It Matter Who Is Breaking Them?
This episode explores why rule-breaking in diving is often more complicated than simply “breaking the rules.” It looks at the difference between shortcuts that…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH301: Eight Questions About the Maldives Dive Accident
This episode examines the deaths of five Italian divers in the Maldives and a Maldivian military diver who later died during the recovery operation, using the…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH300: "We want accountability."
This episode reflects on the tragic deaths of five Italian divers in the Maldives and a Maldivian military diver who died while trying to recover them, using…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH299: When we ask 'What conditions made this more likely?' perspectives (should) change
This episode challenges the instinct to explain diving accidents by focusing only on individual mistakes or broken rules. Instead, it explores how social…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH298: Beyond the Floor: Why Meeting the Standard Isn't the Same as Being Safe
This episode challenges the common belief that following diving standards automatically makes diving safe. It explores how industry standards, while important…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH297: CRM, ISO 8804, and Scientific Diving: Opportunities and Existing Materials
This episode explores the growing recognition that safe and effective scientific diving depends on more than technical skill, equipment, and certification…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH296: When 'I'm Fine' Isn't True: Speaking Up and Ending the Dive
This episode explores a diving incident where nothing officially “went wrong,” yet a series of small decisions and social pressures nearly led to tragedy. A…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH295: Four Ways We Talk About 'Human Factors' in Diving
This episode explores what people really mean when they talk about “human factors” in diving—and why the term can sometimes create more confusion than clarity…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH294: Clickbait, trolls and comments. How dive incident posts can teach us — if we let them
Discussions about diving incidents on social media often follow a predictable pattern: a short, simplified post describes what happened, and comments quickly…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH293: Why does nothing change? Why do the same failures keep happening?
Over the past decade, diving fatalities have remained stubbornly consistent despite better equipment, more training, and growing participation, suggesting the…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH292: Learning or Blaming: The Choice the Diving Industry Needs to Make. Part 3 of 3.
This final blog explores what the research means and how the diving community can realistically improve learning and safety. It argues that the problem is not…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH291: What the Data Told Us: Fear, Trust, and the Stories That Never Get Told. Part 2 of 3.
This blog explains how a mixed-methods study explored why divers struggle to share honest, learning-focused stories about incidents. Using a large…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH290: What Happens Underwater, Stays Underwater — And That's a Problem. Part 1 of 3
This episode introduces the problem behind learning in diving safety, using the 2020 death of Linnea Mills to highlight how incidents are often caused by…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH289: Chac Mool - Diving Deeper into a Triple Fatality with Human Factors
This episode examines a 2012 triple fatality at Cenote Chac Mool in Mexico using a Human Factors approach, showing how accidents are rarely caused by a single…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH288: The 'Obvious Thing' Nobody Noticed
This episode explores the fatal case of 18-year-old Linnea Mills to show how visible hazards can go unnoticed when an instructor lacks the mental capacity to…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH287: When the Picture Goes Dark
This episode explores why divers don’t truly “lose” situation awareness, but instead run out of the mental capacity needed to maintain it. Through the story of…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH286: The Shortcut That Gets You Home — and the One That Doesn't
Divers make many decisions quickly, often without realising it, by using heuristics—mental shortcuts that help us act fast when time and information are…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH285: When Skill Alone Isn't Enough: The Resilient Performance Model
Diving operations rarely fail because people lack skill; they fail when skilled individuals are not supported by the systems around them. The Resilient…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH284: LEODSI and PETTEOT: A Systems Approach for Understanding How Diving Really Works
When something goes wrong in diving, people often ask “who made the mistake?”, but that question usually oversimplifies what really happened and stops us from…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH283: You're Accountable. You're Responsible. You're It!
This piece explores how diving incidents are often misunderstood by focusing too quickly on blame rather than learning. It explains the important difference…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH282: Isolation Amplifies Drift: When Remote Operations Make Small Deviations Invisible
This blog by Michael John Snow explores how small equipment issues on a remote expedition vessel can gradually become accepted as “normal,” not because of poor…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH281: HMS Scylla Wreck Penetration Tragedy: Two Perspectives on Learning
This episode looks at the 2021 wreck diving tragedy on HMS Scylla, where three experienced divers entered the wreck and only one survived. It first examines…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH280: This Could Happen to Any Dive Operator: What We Can Really Learn From The Perth Diving Academy Incident
This episode explores the serious incident in which two divers were accidentally left behind by a dive boat near Rottnest Island while diving with Perth Diving…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH279: The Tower Was Already Full of Holes
This episode looks at how diving incidents are often explained by blaming the last person involved, much like blaming the person who pulls the final brick from…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH278: Be Curious, Not Judgemental
This episode looks at how quick judgement, especially online, can block learning and make diving less safe. Using a real example of an adaptive scuba training…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH277: You are entering water with known problems, and don't kid yourself that it's any different.
This episode explores why people often go diving even when something feels “off,” and how risk usually starts before anyone gets in the water. It explains that…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH276: If there are no silver bullets, build capacity to fail safely
This episode explores what real safety improvement in diving could look like if we stop copying other industries and start designing for the reality of diving…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH275: The death of a child in diver training. There are no ‘silver bullet’ solutions
This episode looks at the tragic death of 12-year-old D.H. during a scuba training dive and explains it not as one person’s mistake, but as a failure of the…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH274: When Do We Stop Asking “Why?”
This episode explores why asking “why did this happen?” after a diving accident is important — but not enough on its own. It explains that investigations often…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH273: What story gets told? What words are used? Who gets to the tell the multiple stories?
This episode looks at two very different ways of telling the same tragic story — the death of a 12-year-old girl during a scuba training dive in Texas — and…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH272: Seeing what is ‘unseen’: applying human factors to citizen science
This episode explores how divers often overlook the richness of underwater environments they think they already know, and how greater awareness can transform…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH271: When the Story Hurts Too Much to Change
This episode explores why diving accidents involving children create such strong reactions and deep divisions, and how our need for simple explanations often…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH270: Safe diving starts from the system. Not from the human.
This episode explores how accidents in diving and other high-risk jobs are often blamed on individuals, even when the real causes are deeper problems in the…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH269: What Is the Purpose of an Investigation in Diving?
This episode looks at how diving accidents are often explained in simple ways that blame individuals, instead of exploring the deeper systems and pressures…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH268: The Hidden Cost of "Never Show Weakness": Why Hiding Instructor Errors Undermines Dive Safety
This blog explains why hiding mistakes in diving training and leadership is dangerous, and why honesty builds safer, stronger teams. Using real examples from…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH267: “Diver's depression” It's time to tackle stigma and taboos
This episode explores the link between diving, mental health, and trust, showing that anxiety, depression, and therapy are common parts of normal life and are…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH266: A Review of 2025. Looking Forward to 2026.
This episode looks back on a big year for Human Factors in Diving and shares what The Human Diver community has achieved, along with what’s coming next. It…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH265: Analysis from a Human Factors Perspective - Cave Double Fatality: Calimba 2004
This episode looks at a real cave diving tragedy and uses it to explain how accidents often happen because of human thinking, not just broken rules or bad…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH264: Teamwork in Diving: The Power of Clear Roles & Task Division
This episode explains that real teamwork in diving is much more than just staying close to your buddy. Using a real incident where a diver tried to handle a…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH263: The desperate need for blame
This episode tells the story of a calm, well-planned dive that still ended with an unexpected case of decompression sickness, and uses it to explore how people…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH262: So what can we do? The Practical Steps/Tools for Bringing HF/NTS into Diving
This episode explains how Non-Technical Skills (NTS) and Human Factors in Diving (HFiD) only work when they become part of everyday diving culture, not just a…
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to DivingSH261: “Would you speak up to the Commander?” - “No. They already know” - Making changes to your team's diving
This episode explores why real learning in diving is harder than buying new gear or following checklists. It explains how divers, like firefighters and oil and…