You are correct, sir.
Aircraft accidents are rarely the result of a single cause. In this case, we have a failure in the initial design process, a failure in the internal (Boeing) review process, a failure in the oversight process (FAA and other certifications authorities), a failure in the education and training process (airlines, Boeing, certifications authorities), and at least one documented failure in the maintenance process (Lion Air). However, despite all these numerous failures, the aircraft in question were still flyable by reverting to basic airmanship techniques of pitch, power, and trim. Yet here we are.
I am not an engineer, so I don’t have the background to say exactly how the engineers went wrong, even though I know they did. I am not a project manager or regulator, so I don’t have the expertise to say exactly how they erred. I am not a maintenance technician, so I am not qualified to comment on where their process went wrong. I’m a little closer to the airline training environment, so I feel I can comment on how they could have handled this better.
However, I most certainly am a 737 type-rated Captain who is given the responsibility of saving the lives of my passengers when everyone else fails to do their job. Even at my airline, our training should be better, our manuals should be better, our maintenance procedures should be better, and our scheduling practices should be better, but the reality is that they are not. I do not have the leisure to say that if all these other people don’t do their job right, I don’t have to do mine. My job, when everything goes to $hit, is to do everything in my power to stabilize the aircraft and get it safely back on the ground. If I don’t, then that is on me.