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Comment by fortran77 | Hacker News Reader

They do. The gate agent overrode it. I hope they fire and prosecute him.

When things fail, we gain little by punishing the person who was operating the system. Instead, we must ask, "why did the system allow this failure?" Fix that root cause, because the operator is not the root cause here.

Why did the system securing the plane let the operator override the error and allow an unauthorized passenger on the plane?

Should be easy enough, UI shows the picture of the guy who scanned the first ticket and system tells operator you go and check his ticket. If you can't find him on the plane he's hiding in the bathroom, call security to get him out.

Because software is full of bugs, false assumptions, and ambiguities, people make mistakes, information doesn't transfer perfectly between airlines, and rare situations become common when you are dealing with enough people. If the gate agent can't override the system, the airline cannot operate.

I've lived in a number of countries in the past 10+ years and encountered more than my fair share of edge cases when flying. On the average, the gate agent has to override something 1-2 times per year when I fly internationally.

Storing photos of people is a bit of a can of worms, make it even easier and just ask for ID if this error occurs.

That's true, but you'd still need to find the unauthorized passenger already on board. Without a picture you'd have to flush the plane and reboard.

Given there are thousands of security cameras in an airport, I don't think anyone would mind if one was used to record who got on the plane.

Now you are asking the right question

> I hope they fire and prosecute him.

"He's a witch! Burn him!"

Firing him would remove him from where he can do harm. What would prosecuting him do?

Why do you hope that?

Why stop there? Execute him too while you’re at it! /s

Humans make mistakes. You don’t need to prosecute every single individual that makes a mistake you know

It also creates a bad safety culture to over-punish mistakes, because then people don't report them for fear of being fired and the system can't be improved to minimize future mistakes.

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