Scapegoating at Morton Thiokol
By - Dexter Hutchins

(FORTUNE Magazine) – There has been plenty of finger pointing at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration since the shuttle disaster (FORTUNE, May 12). The hunt for scapegoats apparently is not confined to NASA. Allan McDonald and Roger Boisjoly, engineers at Morton Thiokol, which built the solid-fuel rocket booster that failed, say they are being pushed around by Thiokol because they went public about bucking management in opposing the fatal January 28 launch. McDonald has been reassigned, and Boisjoly complains that he has been ''put on the sideline'' in work with NASA. Thiokol Chairman Charles S. Locke denies McDonald and Boisjoly are being punished, but he has bad-mouthed them in the press as gossips.