Kermit Vandivier

In this case there are a number of ethical issues such as doctoring findings to produce a positive outcome for the company in question. However the main ethical issue is whistle blowing. Many people had the opportunity to expose the problems with the brakes. People may say that those involved in this case are in the wrong due to the fact that they had a major role in the qualification of the brakes. Most of the executives or senior workers of Goodrich, that new about the problems or were informed, chose to do nothing about them. They were all looking at the monetary side of things. This is a classical case of money before safety and because of this; it has become a landmark case for engineering ethics.
You could purvey this as a “David versus Goliath” story but I tend to disagree, I see Vandivier’s actions as cowardly, he only decided to reveille his knowledge of the problem once the failures became public. Of cause he shall always be touted as the hero of this story because he was the one that showed the inner workings of the Goodrich scandal, but I see know one as the hero. The only person that tried to get something done about the problem was Lawson. He attempted to get Warren to change his design and when that didn’t eventuate try to go higher still with the same effects. The one mistake he made was not taking the third and final step. If steps where taken as soon as the problem arose there wouldn’t have been as big of a problem as it ended up being.
Kermit Vandivier worked for B. F. Goodrich as a technical writer. Feeling that he could not talk to his supervisor, he went "behind the backs" of his managers at B. F. Goodrich (he also contacted his attorney and later the FBI), to report the events that were occurring at the company. It is important to note that during the time when this occurred, it was uncommon for an employee to blow the whistle on corporate wrongdoing.
Vandivier was later dismissed from the company for revealing the information, and his