I would say that framing a business problem in engineering terms will lead to an unclear understanding of the problem. The executives were attempting to thread

I would say that framing a business problem in engineering terms will lead to an unclear understanding of the problem. The executives were attempting to thread the needle of a potentially business killing competition with Airbus and were willing to make compromises to safety to save their skins. No engineering methodology can save you from motivated reasoning and systems level problems like that because management will force exceptions to whatever process is in place. The only thing that would be an appropriate counterweight is if the engineering staff refuses to put a defective design into production. A robust engineering process can make violations and exceptions clear, but if the staff still does what management says, it won't help.