Case: Engineers and Safety

A company is the design subcontractor for an airframe manufacturer about to start building and delivering a new, wide-bodied plane. Despite the fact that the plane is about to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Ron Swartz, an engineer, is convinced that a design defect, if not corrected, will sooner or later result in serious accidents.

Ron has made known his concerns to his supervisors from the earliest stages. As a result, the company’s management urged the manufacturer to correct the problem. This urging was rebuffed, but later an accident happened while a prototype of the plane was being tested on the ground. This event led to some modifications, but Swartz considers them inadequate, possibly even worsening the problem.

When the certification process was about to begin, Swartz again summarized the problem for his supervisor. The supervisor made the case to the company’s top management personnel, who in turn urged the airframe manufacturer, once again, to correct the defect. Again they were rebuffed.

At this point, though unhappy with the result, the design subcontractor feels there is nothing more that they can do since “our contract makes it clear that the manufacturer bears sole responsibility for ultimate design decisions and forbids our company to communicate directly with the government authorities.”

It has now become clear that the manufacturer has sold the FAA on the plane’s safety and they are going to certify the plane. Swartz fears that this will mean the deaths of many people.

1. Has the design subcontractor fulfilled all of its obligations in this case?
2. Should Swartz violate company policy by going directly to the FAA?
3. Should Ron contact the media?
4. Should Ron proceed with trying to stop certification of this plane even if he known that he will lose his job? Even if he knows that individuals in his field who have unilaterally violated a company’s policies are unlikely to be hired by another company? Even if he has five children?
5. Who bears the final responsibility in this case? Ron? The design subcontractor?  The airframe manufacturer? The FAA?
6. To whom does Ron owe his first loyalty?

(adapted from Difficult Moral Questions by Germain Grisez, 1997)

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