The NTSB does not have any prosecution power and their investigation docket + reports are, by law, not admissible as evidence in court. The NTSB will not ident

The NTSB does not have any prosecution power and their investigation docket + reports are, by law, not admissible as evidence in court. The NTSB will not identify the person responsible even to Boeing, let alone anyone else. There is no "taking the fall" for talking to the NTSB. If it were otherwise a great many investigations would be impossible. Besides which the whole point of having a certified aircraft manufacturing process is to avoid making issues any one person's responsibility because all humans make mistakes. Allowing one person's mistake to endanger an aircraft means the process has failed, not the individual. FWIW Airline pilots and ATC also have an ASRS reporting system: Aviation Safety Reporting System. It is blameless as well. Everyone makes mistakes, period. If you punish every pilot or controller who makes a mistake naturally they will try to cover up all such mistakes and that leads to worst outcomes. All the big airlines follow the rules and do not punish pilots for issues reported via the system. At worst you will get sent for some training to address problem areas.