[en] The ATHEANA project, sponsored by the US NRC, began as a study of operational events during low power and shutdown conditions at US commercial nuclear power plants. The purpose was to develop an approach for human reliability analysis that is supported by the experience; i.e., with the history of operational events. As the analysis of operational events progressed, a multidisciplinary framework evolved that can structure the analysis, highlighting significant aspects of each event. The ATHEANA multidisciplinary framework has been used as the basis for retrospective analysis of human performance in operational events in the nuclear power, chemical process, aviation, and medical technologies. The results of these analyses are exemplified by three operational events from different industries. Attention is drawn to those common elements in serious operational events that have negative impacts on human performance. (authors)