In the Stargate Universe premiere (some spoilers for that episode ahead), a group of disparate characters get marooned on a distant spaceship. There becomes a question of who is in charge:
The ranking military officer is the first obvious choice, although there is the complication of him being injured and the next in command takes over.
The head scientist for the project - probably the only character who has decent knowledge about the ship they get marooned on and the ability to affect the ships systems to increase their chances of survival. Complicated by the fact that he has a device with which he was able to communicate alone with the command back home and claims they put him in charge.
A visiting Senator who is on the committee overseeing the project got stuck with them and is in conflict with the ranking military officer.
A member of the IOA is there too, which is the international non military oversight organization in charge of the stargate project (at some point in the previous series what was strictly a US Airforce project got taken over by an international non military group).
Does this sort of thing (other than the sci-fi elements) ever happen in real life, or is there a standard procedure for dealing with it? Suppose an experimental naval vessel were stuck on an island, would the military officer be in charge, or the head scientist of the project, or the Senator on board? What if the President were on board? Is there any real life thing comparable to the IOA? Maybe a UN committee of some sort? If there is some kind of nonmilitary emergency in which military officers happen to be present, do they automatically put themselves in charge? Interested in any other relevant scenarios/procedures I might not have mentioned…
The problem is that each of the people mentioned has a particular portion of authority but no individual is clearly in charge of everyone else. They’re not all in the same chain of command, after all. In such a case, they’d all have to agree together to recognize one person (or a duumvirate, or a committee) as being in charge, even if there was not explicit legal authority for that. Or they could fail to agree, which leads to conflict, which makes for better TV ratings!
Is it a military ship - of the military to which the officers belong? Because if so, the answer is simple: the highest-ranking officer is in charge of the ship itself, and by inference, everyone on board.
The ranking military officer is in charge if it is a military operation. As they are still part of the prior project, albeit in retreat, they are still under the command of the Colonel. While he was incapacitated command falls to whomever the second in command was - in this case the LT.
The lead research scientist would not be the beurocratic head. They would have clout, but the managment would not be the technical specialist. No one is expected to do the labor(research and repairs) and the management.
A senator has no claim to any authority. Senators are elected to represent people, not elected leaders.
The IOA rep could seize control. They technically manage the overall projects and any member can trump the mission lead by unseating the mission leader.
In real life, the chain of command is established to deal with any continency. In my military career I worked in a facility of similar structure. There were Miliary and Gov’t Civilian employees in the chain of command. The head of the organization was a Colonel. My team had a GS13 under the colonel, a Captain under the GS 13 and a 1LT under the Captain followed by the enlisted folks.
In a navy structure, the commander of a ship is always the captain and may not be the highest ranking person on the ship. (Usually they are) But, because they are “Captain” they are higher ranking in the command chain.
In a non-military emergency, military folk do tend to take charge because they’ve had specialized leadership training and know how to deal with the people if not the actual emergency itself. Keeping people collected, focuesed and working together is 90% of solving any emergency.
Highest ranking line officer. Staff officers (doctors, nurses, lawyers, etc) don’t count and wouldn’t be able to assume command. To use Stargate Universe as an example one of the characters appears to be a nurse (their doctor died). She is a commisioned officer (1st or 2nd LT), but she’s a nursing officer. Even if the other line officers (the Col and the LT) died she wouldn’t assume command, the ranking enlisted man (or woman) would even though she technically outranks them (ie she’d have to follow their orders, but they’d salute her first).
Matters like this don’t often have a clear answer, and the person who assumes command will often vary **from moment to moment **depending on the issue in question.
When I was in the Forces, I was an enlisted soldier. But on several occasions I taught courses where officers were students. When matters of that class and curriculum were at hand, I was in charge. Outside the classroom, the officer was in charge, usually. MY best friend, who was a rank ahead of me, was the squadron musketry NCO, so if the officer orderedf me to sign a weapon out of stores and he ordered me not to I would have had to follow HIS orders, not the officer’s, even though the officer outranked us both. If the issue was a medical question then a military doctor had unquestioned authority over all three of us.
Depending on the circumstance, rank may be relevant , but what really matters is position in the chain of command, and different chains of command apply to different issues, so two people might command each other from minute to minute depending on the task at hand. The classroom example is one. Another would be the relationship between the unit’s sergeant major and an operational officer; in matters of dress, discipline and protocol the sergeant major would give (respectful) orders to a lieutenant, but in matters of operations the lieutenant would (while taking respectful advice) give orders to the sergeant major.
Combined Arms team. An infantry company with a artillery battery attached. The Company Commander a Captain is incharge even if the Battery commander (a major) is senior, he has to follow orders.