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Comment by Analemma_ | Hacker News Reader

So much for the theory that "the FAA lost so much credibility because of the 737 Max certification that now they're definitely being super careful and doing their job, so we can trust that it's fixed", which I've heard quite a few times around these parts. Nope: the FAA is still useless and you still should not set foot on this plane.

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I seriously hate this argument.

It completely defeats itself. Boeing will only have an incentive to be ultra-careful if it expects people to boycott its product out of spite after its fuckups are exposed.

If people say "Eh, no use changing my habits, Boeing will probably improve to preserve its reputation", you're giving them the exact opposite of the incentives they should have.

You're also telling other companies that they can screw over consumers at least once and get away with it if they apologize when they're found out.

This advice describes how pernicious corruption and incompetency are. Instead of insisting on mechanisms to improve competency and trust, you're insisting the spread of distrust is the best course of action.

It will be interesting to see whether this aircraft is recertified under substantially similar conditions by EASA, et al.

Are they actually certifying it themselves this time? It is normally enough to pass certification in one country.

Yes. The four main players are Transport Canada, EASA, China and I believe South Africa. Each is refusing to take the FAA certification at its word. Had the FAA been running the program, they would have been up ages ago but the other regulators are being considerably more strict. Source: I work in aviation with airlines who operate the Max

To having a corrupt system is a tragedy

Trusting a corrupt system is a comedy

But you don't doubt that the vaccines are safe, right? After all, the FDA told us so!

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