Originally Posted by longliveKA

Not reporting damage is a cause for immediate dismissal wether you are a pilot, a technician or a ground handling agent. On the contrary, reporting should be encouraged and unless there is a clear breach of rules or malicious intent, there should be no punitive action taken towards the person reporting. This is the basics of the aviation industry. Non reporting can derive from:
- poor training in safety management and human factors, which would be the school's responsability.
- poor corporate culture and absence of a just culture, that would be the operators issue.
The cadet decided to avoid reporting the damage, why did he do so? This is the main issue. If he didn't feel safe to report it means the school/operator didn't do a good job training and instilling a safety culture amongst the new recruits.