Seven,
I'm indeed not a pilot or anything remotely related. My background is in science and engineering.
I'm curious now as to what airline you were employed with, as I appreciate the extra safety of good professionals.
On the other side, how do you know your airplane had the RAT heater "erroneusly" on only 3 times during 11 years? You mean 3 times that you noticed, right? How many times do you suspect the RAT heater/inop TOWS went unnoticed in your airline in those 11 years by yourself or other pilots working with you?
Honestly and any wild figure will do. Do you think it was likely not noticed in 2 or 3 flights in all that time?
MAP concluded that they had their small fleet fly in that condition some 6 times in 3 months.
Does your company SOPS required a test for RAT probe heater on while on the ground? If not, how did you noticed? Because it happened to reach over 99º at the RAT and tripped an autothrust warning or simply because a routine look at the RAT showed an "impossibly high" temperature?
And did you just noticed the RAT heater on? Didn't you noticed an inop TOWS? Didn't your airline required a TOWS test before each flight?
If your airline wouldn't have taught you about the RAT probe heater problem being related to air/ground logic ... would you have still worked for them or deemed them "unsafe" and therefore refused to fly?