• little or no statutory scrutiny of the technology in question although its performance could profoundly affect lives. Boeing self-certified the technology in use in the 737 max.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory the post office’s horizon system was not subject to any statutory or regulatory inspection. Horizon was scrutinised by forensic accountants second sight and the post office dismissed its partially unfavourable findings.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory it also ended second sight’s contract.

• major incidents that were treated by boeing and the post office as one-offs. Links between major incidents may not be immediately obvious because they are sometimes the result of a complicated combination of events that might not have congealed in exactly the same way before.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory but, even after two similar, fatal crashes of the 737 max, the US federal aviation authority said the aircraft was safe. When countries across the world including britain grounded the 737 max, the federation aviation authority had no choice but to act.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory the aircraft remains grounded worldwide; and european and US regulators are at odds over the depth of the oversight changes required to avoid such software-related crashes again.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory it appears boeing will end up having to change the way it operates. After hundreds of complaints about the horizon system, the post office is facing a group litigation action.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory former sub-postmasters are claiming damages for financial loss, personal injury, deceit, duress, unconscionable dealing, harassment and unjust enrichment.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory the post office disputes the whole basis of the claimants’ case and maintains that large numbers of sub-postmasters knowingly submitted false accounts.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory the post office maintains that horizon worked perfectly adequately.

A further common consideration – as in the loss of the challenger space shuttle – is whether questionable institutional practices and behaviour had become normalised.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory A fascinating 575-page book on this problem, “ the challenger launch decision” shows in minute detail how NASA managers did not violate their procedures.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory instead they set and followed bad precedents – what the author diane vaughan called the “normalization of deviance”. She said,

Instead of a new design of airframe, boeing put larger and more efficient engines on an aircraft that remained essentially the same.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory the heavier engines needed repositioning, further forward, on the wings, which affected handling of the 737 in certain circumstances, but any aerodynamic changes were made largely invisible to pilots by new MCAS software.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory

“I don’t have the schematics. I don’t have the cockpit panels. I don’t have an instructor that I can ask questions to,” she said, “you’re hoping that the first time you see the max is on a nice clear day.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory but sometimes it’s not, and you’re showing up at night or in bad weather into an airplane that has all these changes.” pilots were not told about the MCAS anti-stall system.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory

When some sub-postmasters faced with unexplained shortfalls ended up in prison, the crown prosecution service and police were not always involved in their cases.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory it was the post office that was the investigating and the prosecuting authority. Nothing sub-postmasters could say to the post office about horizon would shake its belief in the system.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory

However, the post office is facing criticism by high court judges. In the litigation between sub-postmasters and the post office, the horizon trial judge mr justice peter fraser has been strongly critical of the post office, its behaviour, actions and most of its witnesses.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory in his “common issues” judgement, he said that some of the post office’s submissions “seem to have their origins in a parallel world”. The post office has appealed the common issues judgement.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory

Aircraft design has evolved over decades on the basis of trying to anticipate the improbable and even the impossible. On rare occasions, all the main engines on airbus and boeing flights have failed and passengers have emerged from the incidents unscathed.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory examples include british airways flight 9 (a boeing 747), US airways flight 1549 (an airbus A320) and taca flight 110 (a boeing 737)..

The post office is not accustomed to being told what to do.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory its much earlier predecessor, the general post office, was an arm of government and had its own special investigations unit responsible for intercepting letters as part of british intelligence service operations.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory some of the post office’s work today falls within the scope of the official secrets act. It is not answerable to shareholders (except a single government representative on the board).Jean piaget cognitive learning theory

In 2017, the post office opposed the sub-postmasters’ application for a group litigation order. The judge granted it. In 2018, the post office sought to strike out between about one quarter to one third of all of the evidence served by the sub-postmasters.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory it said the evidence was irrelevant to the first trial. The trial judge disagreed and ruled that the evidence stay.

The post office remains in control, however.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory being 100% government-owned, it can spend money without fear of going bust. Taxpayers would have to bail it out in any financial crisis. It has the power to seek to appeal every major judgement, or appeal refusals to grant a right of appeal, all of which could extend the proceedings for years.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory judge fraser expressed a concern about escalating costs in his judgement in march 2019 when he said,

After decades of IT-related failures in whitehall, some costing billions of pounds, such as the £10bn national programme for IT in the NHS (npfit) secretive institutional cultures and mindsets have remained unchanged.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory indeed, health officials in recent months have sought to to re-introduce facets of the npfit that were discredited years ago, such as central control of locally-based IT.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory

If boeing and airbus were able to treat every major incident as a rare one-off and hold the pilots responsible every time, it is doubtful flying would be as safe as it is.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory statute, rules, government-imposed investigations, a safety culture and the risk of the flying public boycotting airlines perceived as unsafe forces manufacturers and airline engineers to learn lessons from accidents.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory

As for those running a village post office, there are no official statistics on how many sub-postmasters have been affected by unexplained deficits shown on horizon.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory what is known is that about 550 former sub-postmasters are party to a legal action against the post office over the system and a further 500 or so former sub-postmasters are said to have had similar problems but are not in the group litigation.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory that is a total about one in eleven of all the 11,000 people who are running post offices in the UK.

His parliamentary questions are likely to draw the attention of business secretary greg clark to the increasing costs of a high court trial in which more than 550 former sub-postmasters seek compensation and damages from the post office.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory they say they were made to pay for unexplained shortfalls shown on horizon that could have been caused by bugs or other system weaknesses.

This week it has emerged that costs, which could run into tens millions of pounds, are set to rise again.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory although the judge has refused permission for the post office to appeal his refusal to remove – “recuse” himself, the post office can ask the court of appeal to grant that permission.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory BBC legal commentator joshua rozenberg has tweeted,

The post office said, “we will be seeking to appeal the judgment on the recusal application and to continue to vigorously defend this litigation.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory we believe the overall litigation remains the best opportunity to resolve long-standing issues in order to ensure a stable and sustainable post office network for the benefit of the communities who rely on our services every single day.”

jean piaget cognitive learning theory

Nearly 600 sub-postmasters are suing the post office because they say their lives were ruined when the post office required them to make good non-existent shortfalls shown on an imperfect horizon system.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory the post office says horizon has always been robust and that they were entitled to hold the sub-postmasters liable for losses shown on horizon.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory

Regarding the accountability of individual post office limited’s directors, the national audit office said, “since post office limited’s inception in 2012, UKGI has had a representative on the board as a non-executive director.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory the same government representative is also a member of the subcommittee of the board which specifically considers this issue. These committees are involved in decision making around the litigation case and the representative regularly reports to ministers on these matters.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory

“when a committee decides to summon a witness formally, the witness is summoned to attend the committee by an order signed by the chairman. Failure to attend a committee when formally summoned is a contempt and if a witness fails to appear, when summoned in this manner, his conduct is reported to the house… if he still neglects to appear, he will be dealt with as in other cases of disobedience.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory

Now the final verdict on the likely cause of usair flight 427’s destruction was imminent. As families sat in silence at the hilton hotel, springfield, virginia, five board members of the national transportation safety board voted – in public – on whether they accepted the findings of their staff investigators who’d pointed to the likely cause being a technical malfunction, not the pilots.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory

For 16 years the RAF and ministry of defence insisted that there was no evidence of a relevant technical malfunction on the last flight of chinook ZD576.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory they blamed the pilots for the crash. But leaked mod technical papers established that the chinook’s engine computer systems could fail in unpredictable ways – sometimes intermittently – and leave no evidence.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory

The design of the 737 rudder system had been considered fail-safe. It was thought it would work properly even when problems occurred. The system had built-in “redundancy”.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory every lever inside the lower power control unit had a second lever that moved in concert, in case one should break. There were two hydraulic systems in case one should fail.Jean piaget cognitive learning theory there was a standby actuator in case the main power control unit stopped working.