Why Systems Fail Before They Fail: The Double Translation Trap in the Boeing 737 MAX

How can institutions continue to follow procedures while drifting away from the very purpose those procedures were meant to protect? Using the Boeing 737 MAX certification process as a traceable governance case, this paper examines how flight safety became translated into a training-based proxy that gradually replaced the underlying intent it was meant to serve. Once this proxy became authoritative, contradictory evidence no longer entered the decision process in ways capable of altering the system's direction. The paper introduces the concept of the Double Translation Trap: a structural condition in which the mechanism used to operationalise intent also becomes the mechanism used to judge whether intent is being preserved. In this configuration, systems can remain internally coherent, procedurally compliant, and operationally successful while becoming increasingly closed to signals of misalignment. Drawing on governance artefacts, certification logic, and institutional decision structures, the analysis shows how failure can become structurally undetectable before visible breakdown occurs. The paper contributes to the Coherence Programme, which studies how institutional intent is translated into metrics, criteria, and allocation rules across governance layers—and why systems often drift long before outcomes reveal it.