Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Annals of Workplace Idiocy

North Carolina

Sometime last year, elevator workers at two hospitals drained hydraulic fluid into empty soap containers and capped them without changing the labels. Not long afterward, medical staff complained that some of their surgical tools felt slick. But it was not until January that nearly 4,000 patients learned their surgeons had unknowingly used instruments washed in the slippery fluid instead of soap.

Arkansas to Minnesota
Two pilots, in a jovial mood as they flew an empty commuter jet in October, wanted to ''have a little fun" by taking the plane to an unusually high altitude, only to realize as the engines failed that they were not going to make it... The plane, which the two were ferrying from Little Rock, Ark., to Minneapolis, crashed, and both Captain Jesse Rhodes and First Officer Peter Cesarz died.