It does not matter if the you have the best engineers in the world as long management's primary concern is not flawless designs, from an engineering pov, but st

It does not matter if the you have the best engineers in the world as long management's primary concern is not flawless designs, from an engineering pov, but striking a balance between that and some unrelated economic measure. When it comes to safety, such compromises are always /very/ dangerous. I would think the people who designed the space shuttle's rocket boosters weren't clowns either. Didn't prevent http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disast... from happening.