[slededit]

I'm almost certain "expense of human lives" didn't come up as a factor on any of the merger pitch decks. Frankly its a huge leap to see that a merger of two successful and relatively safe aircraft manufacturers would be intentionally at the expense of human lives.

[pytester]

It didn't have to be on any pitch decks for safety to be downplayed. Its presence or absence on pitch decks is quite irrelevant.

You can tell how seriously they took human lives by their default reaction a plane crash. It's always "pilot error": https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/sd9LGK2S9m/battle_over_blam...

[anon1m0us]

Interesting. I see the same default response to accidents in self-driving cars. It's because the driver didn't have their hands on the wheel. It's because the driver fell asleep.

[evan_]

Of course it did, but it was probably spelled differently, like “a merger would enhance our ability to fight regulation”. The regulations being things like “you have to have planes that don’t rapidly fly into the ground for no reason” etc.

[Guthur]

There are many thousands if not millions of humans involved. Successful business affects so many even far removed from the company. Large companies like these are often heavily invested by institutional investors covering many of the populations pensions.

[buddylw]

If they aren't considering human lives in the process, that may be the real problem.

[lovich]

Why would it have to be intentional? They are pursuing profit. Human lives were ended as a result of their actions in the pursuit of profit.

Is that not pursuing profit at the expense of human lives?

[DuskStar]

If I drive to the store to get milk and end up getting in a fatal accident along the way, am I pursuing milk at the expense of human lives?

[bumby]

Not trying to be a Boeing apologist, but if the bar is "zero risk" almost no business plan in industry would be implemented.

They have to acknowledge at some point that lives may be at risk in their business. Whether or not that risk level is a acceptable and that they properly gauge that risk 8s another matter

[pfortuny]

“At whatever costs” easily becomes a moral stance even if nothing strictly immoral was supposed to be assumed.