Agree. There is never a single cause to this kind of error. It takes a village. Someone didn't name things properly, someone else didn't store backups properly,

Agree. There is never a single cause to this kind of error. It takes a village. Someone didn't name things properly, someone else didn't store backups properly, someone else gave everyone root access to production, etc. It was inevitable the database would be deleted - doesn't matter who actually did it. If your CTO scattered those landmines all over then "not stepping right" is not an error. It just sucks.