Originally Posted by
canyonblue737
"Does anyone have any information on instances of irregular MCAS activation that have been successfully handled?"
The day prior to the Lion Air crash the accident aircraft suffered from MCAS activation due to the faulty AOA. The Captain of that flight ran the runaway stabilizer procedure and cutout the stab trim and then was able to complete the flight normally. As far as I know no MAX aircraft has had a MCAS activation since the Lion Air crash until (potentially, there is only tenuous circumstantial evidence at this point) the Ethiopian accident.
Whilst that crew proved they could actually fly, they then made an appalling "airmanship" decision to fly hundreds of miles over high terrain to Jakarta with an effectively jammed stab and no autopilot instead of returning to the 10,000' RWY in Bali 20-30 nm away. Furthermore the incident was not fully written up in the tech log. Commercial pressure maybe....
At this point MCAS has NOT been implicated although something - voice reports from other aircraft indicate unreliable airspeed - happened. It seems probable they didn't even make flap retraction height (thereby discounting MCAS unless they retracted flaps below flap ret. ht.).
While we are waiting for some actual CVR/DFDR facts maybe you would like to read about Ethiopian's last 737 prang here:
https://www.bea.aero/docspa/2010/et-...b100125.en.pdf which in one sentence can be summarised as: pilots can't fly.
I'll get on a Max tomorrow if flown by say, Southwest.