Boeing is having a rough time of it right now, with parts falling off its planes left, right and center. Just last week, a wheel came loose and smashed through a car, and earlier this year the door from a 737 Max aircraft broke off mid-flight. That mid-air disaster sparked an audit from the Federal Aviation Administration, which has gone far from well.
Hotel card seems like a decent tool for the job not hard enough to cause damange but rigid enough to poke around and test. And soap is a pretty good lubticant but mixing it with the existing lipids wont be doing it any wonders.
The point isn’t that the tools were inappropriate, it’s that they were used outside the defined assembly and inspection processes - if you need some lubricant to get the door seal in that’s fine, but the process docs need to specify that. Similarly, if the testing process defines that you need to check for gaps, it should be specifying the thickness of gauge to use and how much of a gap is permissible, not just grab whatever random card you have lying around and poke it in.
Fair
As they just want it temporarily lubed water based lubricants from the sex shop might be a better option. They don’t leave much residue, and are tested for compatibility with various rubbers.
It would also make a better funny headline too.