How should unknown hazards be handled?

• A. Use cautious planning, conservative risk estimates, additional checks, and iterative RM steps.
• B. Ignore unknown hazards until they become known.
• C. Assume unknown hazards are negligible and skip controls.
• D. Only rely on past incidents to assess unknown hazards.

Answer: (A)

Unknown hazards come from factors you haven’t yet identified, so handling them means planning with uncertainty in mind and continuously updating your assessment as new information appears. Using cautious planning and conservative risk estimates helps prevent underestimating danger, while adding extra checks and reviews catches issues that aren’t immediately obvious. Treat risk management as an ongoing loop: identify hazards, assess risk, implement controls, monitor, and reassess as the mission unfolds. This iterative approach keeps risk at acceptable levels even when new or evolving hazards show up. In contrast, ignoring unknown hazards, assuming they’re negligible, or relying only on past incidents can leave you unprepared for risks you haven’t seen before.