Even if this particular problem is not Boeing’s fault, but Smiths’, the whole 737MAX saga still puts Boeing in a pretty bad light – cutting corners on security, outsourcing their software to dubious vendors, etc.
The Daily podcast (NYTimes) did an episode last week called “Boeing’s Broken Dreams” where they interviewed a former Boeing safety manager turned whistleblower. Definitely sounds like there was a major cultural shift over the past decade or so.
There's plenty of bad light to go around. Say company A builds a faulty part, then a stack of ten subcontractors test it and fail to find the error, and finally company B tests and accepts it. Who is responsible for the eventual failure in the field? They all are, because they all had veto power.
