Originally Posted by
ARealTimTuffy
Indeed. In this case though, the authors of the article don’t have to understand the intricacies of certification standards. They just have to have those who do understand on record. And it seems that that is the case here. The FAA engineers were overruled by FAA managers on account of Boeing’s bottom line, and not the actual safety of the aircraft.
So assuming they are accurately reporting from their sources, it is definitely not good.
^^^ This. Exactly this.
Again, the issue is not whether or not the new engines really did create an unacceptable risk to the control cables. The problem is that FAA engineers believed that they did, FAA managers agreed that the design didn't meet agency guidelines and, nevertheless, permitted B to (self-)certify the design. If, of course, the Times story is correct, but, except for generalized suspicion on the part of some posters, we have no reason to believe that the Times' reporting on the story is other than careful and accurate. If it is other than that, we can expect that anyone who feels misquoted or misrepresented will soon speak up.