“The boat equipment was in accordance with the Board of Trade requirements.” The Board of Trade was the regulator of British registered ocean going vessels. Board of trade regulations did not require enough life boats to carry all passengers off a vessel in distress. Thus the Titanic only had enough life boat capacity for ˝ of the passengers she carried, in complete compliance with the then current regulations. The Titanic went down 107 years ago today.
The Max was certified for flight by aviation regulators world wide. These same regulators decreed no additional simulator training was required, (and if they did what would they have trained in that additional sim? Certainly not Left AOA vane failure at low altitude...). While I will point a big finger at the FAA’s head, I will also ask where were the other world wide regulators? Did they simply outsource their job to the FAA? And how much pressure was placed on Boeing by 737 operators world wide to minimize training costs associated with introducing the Max? Some of these operators have a very long history of operation of the 737 series. Did that experience cloud their judgement? Did other operators world wide without that historical knowledge simply accept what Boeing offered as adequate - training by bulletin?
And what about airline training departments? What is the quality of classroom and simulator training? What is the quality of the classroom and simulator instructors, Standards Captains, and Check Airmen? Lastly we need to take a hard, honest look at ourselves. We need to look in the mirror and see the pilot we are, not the pilot we think we are.
Sure I’ll throw bricks at Boeing and the FAA, but any honest assessment wouldn’t stop there.