I'm not a pilot, just another sort of techie, but I read it all the way through. Twice.
Deja vu all over again.
The saga of the booster joints on the Challenger shuttle is eerily similar, with tenders, competing companies, CYA files, warning events, "lost" reports etc.
There are plenty of similar stories in my field. Try building a hospital.
Is this sort of "company/project culture" an unchangeable, inevitable part of human nature?
Will we EVER learn? I dunno.
Courageous post. Pity that there aren't more people like Lu around.