Jim Oberg wrote:
Coming up on the 20th anniversary, I'm beating
my old drum with two suggestions for proper
commemoration:

1. Stop calling it an 'accident'. It was a disaster,
a crash, a catastrophe, probably NOT an 'explosion'
(a disintegration, more accurately) -- but it was most
of all a consequence of actions, a string of situations
that all lined up to destroy the spaceship and the crew.
It was avoidable. It was somebody's FAULT. It was
'wrongful death'.

In my business (insurance type investigations), losses (most
often due to fire) are initially defined as being either purposeful
acts (i.e. arson) or accidental, even if due to negligence. I
view the Challenger failure as an accident that was the result
of negligent management decisions about a flawed design.

- Ed Kyle