More than likely covered in the AF 447 thread, but what about the decision to delay the replacement of the suspect make of pitots? Bean counters?
They sure as sh!t replaced them as a priority after the event!
QF one back in '99 may have just avoided the 19th hole at Bangkok, if the use of reverse thrust hadn't been trained out of that crew. Bean counters?
They sure as sh!t reinitiated the use of reverse thrust as the rule rather than the exception after that event!
The point I'm making is that even though pilots are often, and in many cases turn out to be, the last line of defense, the initial hole in the cheese quite often belongs to decisions made at a much more "ground based" level.