>But I can't imagine it would be allowed to even have this as an operating procedure this when it puts the plane in a situation where it can't be certified? An

>But I can't imagine it would be allowed to even have this as an operating procedure this when it puts the plane in a situation where it can't be certified? Anything can be allowed with enough omission, lawyers, scapegoating, campaign donations, and enough tolerance for blood on one's hands. It's called regulatory capture and it's the fundamental conflict-of-interest between most engineering orgs and their in house Quality programs, with the exacerbating effect that if you can coerce the external regulatory forces to give you a pass, there's really nothing your Quality people can do but resign in a gesture of "I won't build that". You will never see the regulatory apparatus work as designed if it isn't willing to just say "No" to that which clearly violates prescriptive certification criteria.