Agreeing to settle?
By the time you've paid people to argue amongst the parties involved, it might just be cheaper and easier to settle. That way the settlement money goes to those who need it rather than those doing the arguing.
In this case, the operator surely had some involvement in the events that lead to the manufacturer's item not working as designed, so it would just be a very expensive and time-consuming argument to split the inevitable costs.
In the case of a car crash, the insurer doesn't want the insured to admit fault, so that they can run that discussion themselves.