On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:54:26 +0100, Justin C
wrote:

And what about those who plan
and plan, and spend years researching, do all possible to eliminate
possible failure and yet things go catastrophically bad, as an example
take Apollo 13?

1. Some are just plain lucky (an accident waiting for a place to
happen).

2. Some do a lot of planning but don't fully understand the risks and
issues, and what should be done to mitigate them (mostly a lack of
real world experience).

3. Some, like Appollo 13, were calculated risks that went bad (no one
ever said that the early days of space travel were going to be totally
safe).

4. Some are cock sure arrogant and think it can't happen to them (see
item number 1).