We will never agree, SC, but as a professional pilot on a professional pilots' web forum (and I have NO idea what you are), I have to re-arrange your post:-
APPARENT primary cause: Crew failing to select flaps and failing to perform check lists (as yet, as far as I know, unproven - and no-one has stated that the a/c could not have operated satisfactorily with the defect)
Contributing Factors:
Possible technical defect resulting in failure of a warning system - apparently not understood by those who write the maintenance books, nor the engineer or crew.
Possible commercial pressures - the ever present need to operate a company in profit or slide gently down the wall. 'Acceptable accident rate' (defined by 'regulators' in many walks of life) being a 'derivative' of this. If this was a contributor I have no doubt that Spanair will learn the consequences.
I doubt many Spanair pilots - or management - even know what CHIRP is, so you should leave that off your list as irrelevant in this accident. Please define for us a 'defective aircraft'. Are you suggesting the DDM/ADD call-it-what-you-will system be scrapped? As for unions 'criticising an airline'.................
Out of this thread come lessons: pilots must review their operating procedures; manufacturers and airlines need to ensure that maintenance procedures are thorough; it is encumbent on those who can to ensure that this particular 'hole' is plugged. I suppose the 'word I dare not utter' is REGULATION. It is how we get these things achieved that is important.
PJ2 - "If that's all there was to this accident, the thread could have finished on page 1" - I strongly disagree!