The step forward
Just immagine what a step forward it could be if the court would decide that "The redundancy can not be used for commercial reasons only"
What would happen to the industry?
Look at all the side effects it would have. Has it the potential to increase safety?
Clearly it would eliminate some operators that do not take maintenance seriously or do not have the funds to do so. Or their local CAA to have a decent oversight.
It would give just credit to those that are cautious and make it difficult to those that try to get away with anything. How many cases do we know where the error was clear but they got away with it.
The day BA does this with an A 380 you will see public opinion all over the place without asking for it.
Reality is not defined solely as "The opinion of one or more experts"
The question that the FAA and other CAA have to answer is simple:
"There are strict airworthiness certification rules the manufacturor has to meet when building an airliner. These criteria take care of the likelyhood of failures. The redundancy is there so the crew can stay in control.
Why did we not regulate the way this redundancy should be used in a way that removes differant interpretations?"
As a consequance it is now a matter of the courts and as such a matter of the general public that is reprsented by a judge. In essance this judge is now reprersenting the passengers that were on board of this flight.
The problem is NOT that the FAA wants to build a case to favour Boeing. The problem may be that the UK and the USA are civilised contries that have those systems build into their democracy. Should we not look at those that haven´t and use this oppurtunity?
In the context of one CAA pointing the finger to another:
Isn´t ICAO opening that door right now by publishing their audits publicaly in the near future.
What if we (Europe) would solve the Flight Time Duty time issue by just accepting the USA sytem and form one block by demanding carriers from outside this block to meet those rules if they want to have acces to that airspace?
ICAO can not do it by themselves nor can the United Nations on another level. Let´s use our strenght and make things better.