Originally Posted by
PashaF
... As for technician-crew interactions, i don't think there were any. Technical guy mission (most logically) was not consulting but observation.
Nobody knows what role the technician played on the flight, unless any specific "maintenance-type" actions might be traceable on the DFDR. For all we know, perhaps he was not even in the cockpit. Despite the previous 3 sectors all having control issues due faults, the operator claimed that he was there in a neutral role.
My hunch is (1) assuming he was on the flightdeck, and (2) assuming the crew exhausted all ideas as you said would happen after 5 minutes of running the checklist, then (3) accessing real-time maintenance data from the flight deck displays was only about 2 or 3 clicks away. Boeing proudly touts this capability, new to the MAX: "Many operators have asked that the 737 MAX include access to additional airplane data, and that data be securely made available to flight, cabin,
and maintenance teams during flight or while on the ground." And from later in the article: "The onboard maintenance function will be capable of reducing no-fault found events by correlating system status indications to detailed system and equipment faults..."
There's even a maintenance screen for
Present Leg Faults.
Source:
737 MAX Advanced Onboard Network System (Boeing, AeroMagazine, pp 5-11)