The typos that changed lives | The Guardian

  • An elderly gent who inadvertently had his satnav set to "Rom" instead of "Rome" and wound up in the wrong country;
  • A pilot that incorrectly input destination coordinates causing a Sydney flight to Kuala Lumper landing in Melbourne;
  • A nurse who keyed the wrong drug code into a dispensary machine and accidentally treated anxiety with a poison used as part of the lethal injection, killing someone;
  • A Companies House employee who began the liquidation of a 150-year old engineering firm because they missed a pluralisation (Taylor & Son/Taylor & Sons), ultimately causing such loss of business that the highly-profitable firm ended up going bankrupt (though later successfully sued for £8million);
  • Nigel Lang, Sheffield, ended up being investigated for child pornography, unable to see his family for three weeks and left traumatised, contemplating suicide, because someone at the police station mistyped an IP address that would take years to clear up;
  • On the other end, Kasey Bergh and Henry Glendening (US) ended up meeting because Kasey mistyped a colleague's number, ultimately got married, and then when Kasey's kidney failed Henry was an ideal match, saving her life.

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  • <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title></title> </head> <body> <p>An elderly gent who inadvertently had his satnav set to "Rom"&nbsp;instead of "Rome"&nbsp;and wound up in the wrong country;A pilot that incorrectly input destination coordinates causing a …</p> </body> </html>
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