¶ … Management
On March 11, 2004, an explosion ripped through Madrid's commuter train system. The attack occurred just three days before a general election that was very close. Originally, the government blamed Basque separatists for the incident. However, within a few hours a militant group linked to Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack. The reason why is because of Spain's support for the Iraq War. (Shemella, 2011, pp. 156 -- 209) (Bennett, 2007, pp. 43 -- 44)
After the bombing, is when the police stepped up their surveillance and realized that a secondary attack was about to take place. This happened on the morning of April 2nd when the same terrorist cell failed to set off a device on a high speed train called AVE. The evidence that was collected from the scene allowed law enforcement to identify an apartment that the group was using as their headquarters. After raiding the location, 29 individuals were arrested and charged with the bombings on the Madrid subway system along...
In 2007, 28 of the defendants were convicted of the attacks and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 5 to 40 years. These events are showing how the bombings and subsequent investigation were a series of failures as well as successes in critical incident management. (Shemella, 2011, pp. 156 -- 209) (Bennett, 2007, pp. 43 -- 44)
How the Madrid Bombings are Showing Critical Incident Management Mistakes?
In spite of the successes experienced by law enforcement, the Madrid Bombings are considered to be a failure. This is because the terrorists were able to detonate four separate devices in a coordinated attack on March 11, 2004. Then, the group was able to go undetected for nearly a month after the attack and prepare for a second bombing on the rail system. The only reason the AVE attack was not successful, is because the bomber made a critical error by not attaching the explosive to the trigger. This caused a malfunction in the device (giving…
