FlyingBear

I know we could argue circles about this shouldn't be allowed to happen, so forth and so on. In this razor thin margin industry... blah blah ... etc...

However, evaluating your options strictly at boarding though, its either duct tape or delaying and possibly canceling the flight to properly maintain an item that has a really low probably of inflicting any serious harm or death on a passenger. Of course the possibility is there, but I then again it would suck to be a passenger who had their flight canceled because of it.