I'm not a pilot (well, only ex-PPL), but I am an engineer, working in safety-critical infrastructure. These two accidents are going to shake this industry. I know they have not yet been linked, but the gun is smoking.
Three massive issues stand out for me.
1. What has gone wrong at Boeing, that could allow a system to intervene, unknown to the flightdeck, but which had no redundancy on a vital input? Any systems analysis of this solution should have picked up this critical flaw...if it didn't, then the analysis (or analysors) was patently in error.
2. What has gone wrong at Boeing, that allowed a system to be designed, which used trim as a primary flight control? Correct me here if I'm wrong, but is trim not there to alleviate control forces once a flightpath has been established? Any system where trim is used in a primary manner is completely counterintuitive to flight crew. (maybe my understanding is wrong here, so happy to be corrected)
3. What has gone wrong at the FAA, that no-one caught this system? It seems they tried to devolve responsibility back to Boeing, but the FAA cannot do that...they are on the hook for this regulatory failure.
Corporate and regulatory culture is the problem here, and it stinks. I've always assumed Boeing were good guys, with a track record second to none. But something has gone wrong. And the FAA? I just find the whole thing staggering.
Pity the poor flightcrew...left with an airplane that had systems they didn't know about, without the necessary redundancy, and which was doing things they couldn't hope to assimilate at a crtical juncture in the flight.
The safest form of transport is facing a lot of questions just now.
Last edited by NWSRG; 17th Mar 2019 at 21:43.