I think the dividing line between whether an industry practices programming or engineering is the question "Is it possible people might die as a direct conseque

I think the dividing line between whether an industry practices programming or engineering is the question "Is it possible people might die as a direct consequence system failure?" Commercial aviation products are developed according to the requirements of DO-178B (or increasingly, DO-178C) which defines several levels of criticality at which a software component could exist. The most severe indicates that software failure could result in loss of life. The least severe indicates that a software failure wouldn't interrupt anything notable (often used for in-flight entertainment, for example). As you go up the chain, the amount and stringency of process increases.