Wasser - interesting. I guess its possible that the "over a year" / "instantaneous" risk calculation issue was really a weak defence by BP for their culpability. By this I mean it would have been quite easy for the judge to show that the BP risk was not ALARP even on a "average yearly" basis - just moving the accommodation block (relatively low cost) had a significant impact on safety (15 confirmed killed, but upto say 100/200 people not exposed to a clear potentially lethal risk during an incident at the refinery).
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I wasn't going to enter the engineer / technician debate, but the quote below is perhaps a bit misleading as to what an engineer really is....
All RAF maintenance personnel are engineering technicians and mechanics and know their jobs and are not afraid get their hands dirty. There are too many who call themselves 'engineers' who don't know one of a spanner from the other. These experts are usually engineering managers or so far away from the front line that they have little or no knowledge for which they are responsible. Please be careful not to put down the few professionals we do have.
I do not, in any way, denigrate the dying breed of Air Engineers who are expert and professional system operators.
An Engineer.
'engineers' who don't know one of a spanner from the other.
As far as I'm concerned, if you know how to design a spanner, make it the right dimensions to cope with the stresses it will be subject to without overengineering it, and are able to develop the processes and systems to manufacture the spanner safely, set & test it meets quality criteria, and do the whole thing cost effectively on a large scale with consideration of environmental & political impacts of your enterprise, then you are an engineer, usually with a professional CEng qualification. Such an engineer may have started his/her career as a technician.
If you can do up / loosen nuts with a spanner against a set of laid down procedures (i.e. to a specified torque) but couldn't do all of the above, you are not an engineer, but probably a technician.
I appreciate there are both types in the RAF, but the discrimination above applies to all engineers / technicians and to those who have bothered to acquire the broader set of skills/experience is quite important.
I can use plasters & take pills, but I wouldn't call myself a doctor or a nurse, so technicians shouldn't really call themselves engineers for the same reasons.