Originally Posted by
Loose rivets
Posted in error on the parallel thread.
737Driver post number #4304
One of the bees in my bonnet has been the
removal of that column switch on the MAX. Not just the bypassing of its logic under certain conditions - but the total physical removal.
Despite being in my 80th year, (and posting on the wrong thread) statements like that still stick firm, like the unwinding of MCAS. The switch removal (from under the floor at base of column) never really got a clear answer. Well it did: a dedicated post saying 'I don't know'.
I try to filter my information input, and of course a lot is from the Times publication and our engineering friend in Seattle. The switch is either there, or not there, but it seems if it is, its functionality can be obviated as per 737 Driver's earlier post.
Back to his assertion that it was flyable. I get a sickening feeling that something else apart from psychological overload might be wrong. There are so many able minds chasing the suspected faulty input to that 47' of flying surface, along with the associated loading difficulties, that you'd think remedial action was just a matter of time. But the thing I fear most is months of rewriting of code, some agreement on what is now certification and the craft back in the sky carrying a ghost in the machine.
There is too much pressure to get airborne.
'We' seem to have everything we need to throw light on those terrible moments, but the very fact that so many skilled people, not least of all on this forum, can disagree on the extent of the pilot culpability worries me deeply. There is a huge dichotomy in the judgement of these flying professionals.
It is the last paragraph of the above post that also concerns me. I am dismayed to read on this forum that there are those who suspect culpability on the part of the pilots. Here is an extract from Dominic Gates article in the Seattle Times
"Flawed analysis, failed oversight: How Boeing, FAA certified the suspect 737 MAX flight control system"As Boeing hustled in 2015 to catch up to Airbus and certify its new 737 MAX, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) managers pushed the agency’s safety engineers to delegate safety assessments to Boeing itself, and to speedily approve the resulting analysis."
The full article may be accessed at : https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...ion-air-crash/
"But the original safety analysis that Boeing delivered to the FAA for a new flight control system on the MAX — a report used to certify the plane as safe to fly — had several crucial flaws."
How could it be that when so much has been published about this accident, some can still consider culpability may still be suspected on the part of the pilots. Is this not yet another case of a race between competitors, just as it was back in the late 60`s, early 70`s for the first wide body jets and the Turkish DC10 crash.
Always easy to blame the pilots, perhaps this is why in today`s age of high tech, computers, robotics, automation, that pilots are still "carried" on board the modern airliner.