The captain of the Korean ferry that sank faces several
criminal
charges.
I don't know enough about ferry operations to judge how serious
his alleged wrongs were. But it would be unjust to punish him
more for these actions than they would punish another captain
who did the same things without causing any loss of life.
Disasters happen when several errors and failures combine. Each
of the individual errors happens often but
usually
does not cause a disaster. The error is equally culpable whether
it leads to a disaster or not.
If we want crews to change practices and thus reduce the errors that
could contribute to future disasters, we should take measures that are
effective.