Originally Posted by
737 Driver
Wonkazoo,
Ultimately, these planes were flyable using some pretty basic airmanship skills, but that did not happen.
No.
Look I agree with most of what you're saying. Good airmanship, hand flying practice, all the other great points.
But this is different to any other aircraft system failure that I can think of.
Eg loss of pitot. Loss of static. Engine fire. "QF32" uncontained failure causing multiple control system failures. Flap/slat wrong config at takeoff. Dual engine out after bird strike... Etc.
These are all single events that put the aircraft in a new and interesting state. Now use good airmanship to recover. Fine.
Why is MCAS different?
1) It's intermittent. Not just a single event. Pops up unexpectedly for a few seconds then disappears. These are always the hardest faults to diagnose.
2) It's insidious - hidden by noise and by human expectation (hiding in plain sight - bursts of trim are normal).
3) It's fast - it can put you in serious trouble in a few seconds flat
4) Like a bacterial complication to a viral infection, it creeps in and hits you when you're dealing with another problem (airspeed unreliable/stick shaker)
I'm not saying that the ET302 pilots had no room for improvement. Like you I think their repeated autopilot engagement is a red flag. But dealing with MCAS failure is in test pilot league, not 'basic airmanship skills'.