Quite right. Yet it's something of a taboo to speak of that reality. Boeing people in particular know well just how thin-skinned a public in deep denial can be.

Back in the 2000s, a manager uttered the words "torture flights" in a private corporate meeting. Within days his words were leaked to the populist press by rivals within the bureaucracy.

Boeing higher-ups dealt with the ensuing firestorm by disposing of the truth-teller.