But pilot error, compounded by incompetence and bad luck, looks the overwhelmingly likely explanation.
"These include legendary Saudi incompetence compounded by their arrogance.
Years of Spanish isolation, neglect under Franco, then institutional incompetence, compounded the impression of narcolepsy.
Incompetence was compounded by cruelty: the systematic use of torture, symbolized by Abu Ghraib, has ended, but it has left a stain on America's reputation which General David Petraeus recently called "nonbiodegradable".
Particularly important here was the case of the ban on contraception, which inaugurated a gradual loss of confidence in church leadership that is now compounded by revelations of incompetence in dealing with the sex abuse scandal.
He said the United States had sympathy for the Cuban people over the deprivation of their personal freedom and material wellbeing and hardships further compounded by gross mismanagement and incompetence, which the Cuban regime itself admits.
Frustrations over rapidly deteriorating economic conditions in Zimbabwe, compounded by dissatisfaction over alleged government corruption and incompetence, have resulted in near-daily protests in recent weeks.
In a country already abnormally suspicious of its federal government and thoroughly convinced of its incompetence, the failures of healthcare.gov have compounded the already significant challenges facing progressive reformers.
The next-closest thing to a "moment" for Flacco came during the divisional round when his 70-yard desperation heave to Jacoby Jones, compounded with one of the greatest displays of defensive incompetence in history, sent the Ravens to overtime in Denver.
In the current crisis, the French are shocked to find that French incompetence as much as English perfidy is to blame, and this has compounded the understandable fury with chagrin.
