7. Typology of human errors in the perception-action chain

As we have seen from the cases studied above, human error is the cause of over 70% of accidents worldwide.

It is beyond the scope of this article to draw up an exhaustive typology of all the errors that occur here and there. But it does seem essential to mention the seven types of error most frequently encountered along the perception/action chain.

• The first is perceptual error, which can take several forms. The information is emitted by the system, but the human being does not perceive it, because he is busy with something else or is not vigilant (tired, asleep...). This is what happened with the Mont-Blanc tunnel controller, who failed to perceive the first opacity alarm.

  The information may also be fleeting, unrecorded and the signal drowned out by a large amount of other information....