This is the sort of fault that causes everyone to pray the investigation comes back "pilot error". Because the alternative is the entire company gets pulled through the mud. Rightfully, but man, this is going to hurt Boeing, and by extension the US.
What has hurt Boeing is the design problem and the poor response to it. At this point, the best way to mitigate the damage is for Boeing to step up, acknowledge fault, fix the problem, and demonstrate concrete changes that will prevent similar problems from occurring in the future.
I find the idea that society should not keep corporations and their behaviour in check because "the economy may be damaged" to be frightening and dangerous.
I didn't say we shouldn't. I'm fairly comfortable with the idea of bitter medicine. But acknowledging "this is going to be bitter" is a remarkably helpful way to gain rapport, and doesn't actually interfere with the administration of the treatment. If anything, it reduces the patient's odds of rejecting the medicine.
