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> Glad I didn't pick up Boeing shares on the cheap just yet.

Unfortunately, it's a focus on profits over people that likely led to these disasters. I don't know how you can stop or dissuade from people making a buck off of a tragedy, but it might be worth putting our attention on the human element of this mess. Something about merging this safety issue with an opportunity to "buy low" and make some cash just doesn't sit right.

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Traditionally this is done by having a separate safety, QA or compliance organization (depending on industry) that has the power to overrule the bean counters and guys with white teeth.

That's how it works in the FDA regulated medical device and medical software industry. We had a woman who could shut us down on a whim. (And she would, from time to time.)

That said, in the FDA regulated industry, every change was signed by not only the engineer, but by the QA person, by the engineering manager, and by her. So in fairness to her, SHE would have been one of the people going to jail if the software told a doctor to take out the wrong kidney because of a bug in the calculation of an ortho normal basis or something. So I didn't blame her one bit.

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