Not long ago, quality assurance in aerospace was a narrow, hands-on process. Inspectors would physically verify installations: feeling the torque on bolts, tracing defects to their origin, and leaving behind ink-smudged paperwork as evidence of accountability. It was tactile, deliberate, and sometimes slower—but it worked.
Today, that same process has been digitized into checklists, creating a false sense of security. Instead of physically verifying that bolts are torqued to specification, an inspector might simply tap a box on an iPad, recording compliance without ever testing the hardware. Boeing’s D6-51991 digital product definition standard (AS9100D Section 8.5.2) may track every click, but as the January Alaska Airlines door blowout proved, even four missing bolts can slip through (LA Times, 2024). The computer log identifies the inspector by name, yet it doesn’t necessarily verify that the work was physically done, or even by that person. Aerospace standards demand traceability—each inspection must be clearly linked to the individual, with documented evidence of competence (AS9100D Sections 7.2 and 8.5.2).