Consider the following situation: An engineer who has been involved in the design of a small airplane for business travel, type XYZ, finds out that he used the wrong software to calculate the required strength of the wing. He has used a standard software package but now realizes that his package was not fit for this specific type of airplane. The very same day he finds this out, a plane of type XYZ crashes and all four passengers die. The investigation shows that the plane has crashed due to an inadequate design of the wing. Do you consider this engineer responsible for the plane crash and the death of four people? (If you think there is not enough information to arrive at a judgment, indicate what information you would need to make a judgment and how this information would affect your judgment)

Problem Statement 2: In general, nobody will want to deny that engineers have an active responsibility for technologies they design and/or work with. In practice, however, many engineers find it problematic to act on this responsibility. Describe three problems for the idea that engineers should take responsibility for technologies and give a concrete example of each problem from engineering practice.

Problem Statement 3: Who should in your view decide about the acceptability of risks? Engineers? Politicians? Company managers? The public? Argue your answer and discuss what your view would imply for the responsibility of engineers with respect to safety.