One serious consequence is that focusing only on human performance issues and blaming the individuals involved obscures the opportunity to identify underlying latent conditions contributing to the event.

While most events involve an individual making an active aerror, it should be remembered that the person does not work alone, but works within a system. Blaming or punishing this person does little to prevent the occurrence of future events since it is the latent conditions that generally set up the person to commit the active error.