Hindsight bias is a psychological effect that leads people to misinterpret the
conclusions of accident investigations. Often the first question people ask about the decision making leading up to an accident such as Columbia takes the form of: “why
did NASA continue flying the Shuttle with a known problem…?
The hindsight bias is a well reproduced research finding relevant to accident analysis and reactions to failure. Knowledge of outcome biases our judgment about the processes that led up to that outcome.
From Space shuttle Columbia accident report.