The term "human error" represents the misguided narrative that human action was the "root cause" of an incident. Reality is never that simple; security incidents never occur because of a sole factor.

She wanted to speak to an FBI agent named Kevin Kelley, the same agent who apparently committed the “human error” in this case that led to her being put on the no-fly list.

To me, the most frustrating aspect of these errors is that they result from poor design. Incompetent design. Worse, for decades we have known how proper, human-centered design can prevent them.