Mercury is a licensed professional engineer with over 15 years of experience in the design of door latching systems for the aircraft industry. He was the senior designer of the door systems for a new line of executive jets his company had recently launched. After the plane went into production, Mercury, using new software that simulated various failure modes, determined that the latching systems might fail under certain circumstances. Design modifications were reviewed and determined to be very expensive.

Mercury's boss, Hera, also a P.Eng., believed that the failure circumstances were incredibly remote and that the design met all the commonly used design and safety criteria. The design was similar to the one used on executive jets for many years without any problems. She was also concerned about the financial viability of the firm if the expensive design changes were made especially with a recall of the already delivered planes. In addition, all regulators had reviewed the design and found no reason to question its safety. Consequently, she directed Mercury to leave the design alone. She also decided that she would not authorize any further review of Mercury's work to determine if there was a problem and she did not inform senior management.

Mercury was very concerned that the design was inadequate and might fail. He had reviewed the results of the simulations many times before bringing the matter to Hera's attention and believed that his analysis was correct. Since no failures of the design had been reported at the time of his review, Mercury accepted Hera's decision and did not pursue the matter further.

Six months after Mercury had brought the potential problem to Hera's attention, a door latch failed during a flight and the plane had to make an emergency landing. Fortunately no one was injured. Hera directed Mercury to be quiet about having raised some concerns about the design since it might have implications with the regulators.

Using PEO's Codes of Ethics and Professional Misconduct as your guide:

(a) Discuss the Mercury's behaviour and actions before the door latch failed including any consequences he might face.

(b) Describe the actions Mercury should now take after the failure.

(c) Discuss Hera's behaviour and actions including any consequences she might face.