CASE 25: DC – 10 JUMBO JET [Real-World] Jake Fekete Tej aswini Gautham Lej ia Peng Daniel S mith
NS PE Code of Ethics
Background McDonnell Douglas is building a DC 10 Jumbo Jet (airplane) and cont ract ed Convair t o build t he cargo door. Dan Applegat e is t he senior engineer at Convair.
Background 1970-Dan Applegat e predict s t hat t he door would get ej ect ed due t o excessive cabin pressure. The management did not make any changes because it would be expensive. 1972-The cargo door unlat ched, occuring at a height of 11,000 feet over t he village of S aint -Pat hus - at a point when t he cabin pressure should have st ill roughly equalled t hat at sea level. The loss of t he door was caused a sudden depressurisat ion, which was followed by t he failure t he cabin floor.
Background 346 people died in the crash. Remember: Dan Applegate predicted this would happen. He submitted a letter to the VP of Convair stating his concern and the need to redesign the cargo door… However, NO ACTION WAS TAKEN TO FIX THE PROBLEM
Issues and Points of Ethical Conflict Who is responsible? Dan Applegate is the protagonist What should he have done? Was it all his fault?
Protagonist: Dan Applegate The main issue here is who is responsible for the plain crashing. Dan Applegate never blew the whistle about the companies ignoring his request to redesign the cargo door. Convair and McDonnell Douglas never made the changes to the door because it would be too costly.
S takeholder: Dan Applegate The prot agonist is Dan Applegate - he cannot risk lives by designing a faulty door, but he also must do as his bosses say, as long as it is ethical
S takeholder: VP of Convair Applegate needs to address any problems or concerns about the plane. VP of Convair’s responsibilities: Cannot risk lives as a result of a faulty design. Must try to save money for his company.
S takeholder: President of Convair Applegate needs to tell the President when the VP is ignoring a potential problem. President of Convair’s responsibilities: Must try to save money. Cannot risk lives as a result of his company’s faulty design.
S takeholder: McDonnell Douglas Applegate needs to tell the company that is contracting him about any potential problems or concerns about the design. McDonnell Douglas’s responsibilities: Cannot risk lives by letting people ride their planes. Try to contract the company that can make cargo doors for the lowest price.
S takeholder: THE PEOPLE Applegate cannot let a design go through that puts the people riding the planes at risk. NS PC Code of Et hics #1
S takeholder: American Airlines Applegate cannot let a faulty plane pass and make it all the way to American Airlines.
Potential Option #1 Telling the President of Convair about the problem. This is the first action Applegate should take. The only negative consequence that could have came from this is that he could have been reprimanded and the president would not listen (to save money), in which case he should tell a higher personnel.
Potential Option #2 Telling the President of McDonnell Douglas about the problem, and how the upper management in Convair will not solve the problem to try to save money. This could potentially get McDonnell Douglas to stop contracting Convair, and hurt the company putting Applegate’s j ob in j eopardy. However, McDonnell Douglas possibly would have fixed the design, saving over 300 lives.
Potential Option #3 Do nothing. He does not have to worry about his j ob, but lives are in j eopardy and he could potentially be responsible if something happens.
Potential Option #4 Blowing the whistle and telling an authority not involved about the faulty design and the dangers associated with this plane. The negative consequences to this would be potentially hurting his j ob status, but this would save over 300 lives.
What should Applegate do?
Plan of Action The first thing that Dan Applegate should do is to tell the VP , which is what he did. However, once the VP did not take any action to try to save money, he should have went straight to the President. Hopefully the President wouldn't be willing to risk so many lives to save a little extra cash.
Plan of Action If the President does not want to take action, then this puts Dan Applegate in a predicament. Instead of telling the upper management of McDonnell Douglas, he should blow the whistle immediately. Too many people have already failed to take action at this point. He should blow the whistle and tell someone about the problem. Preferably someone involved in an airline saftey or regulation association. NS PC Code of Ethics states that Engineers must “ hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public” . He cannot let a faulty design go through if 300+ lives are risked.
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