Absolutely this. There is a tendency in higher management circles to only want paper trail created after a decision to deal with or dismiss an issue is made. I never realized why until I found out about e-discovery.
You can get around this somewhat by fulfilling their request to be notified without paper trail, then immediately e-mailing them and everyone involved with a copy of the problem discussed, the decision made, the reasoning behind the decision (including attribution to who said what), and the the action plan moving forward.
If you really feel uncomfortable about it, include the weather outside the office day. It seems silly, but it can lead to some interesting lines of questioning in legal proceedings, and it also serves as a canary to those paying attention to what you are concerned may be in the future moving forward. Sometimes this may kindle a more in-depth review of the subject matter at hand.
People may think you're weird. However, most just file it under "there is no communication like over-communication."
"If you really feel uncomfortable about it, include the weather outside the office day. It seems silly, but it can lead to some interesting lines of questioning in legal proceeding"
Sure, but is it really a question here that Boeing definitely would not try to hide this in the first place?
Why would Boeing willingly and knowingly ship a plane with a fuel leak? They know a fuel leak has an extremely deadly potential.
What could _possibly_ be the interest for Boeing to ship _one_ plane with a fuel leak? If that was a systematic thing, then yes why not, we could say they hid it on purpose. But here it doesn’t make sense.