Originally Posted by
737 Driver
Having reviewed perhaps hundreds, if not thousands, of incident reports over the years, I think I have a fairly good sense for what types of malfunctions should have been survivable without resort to extraordinary means, which ones required some combination of luck and superior skill, and which ones were pretty much hopeless from the start. In the case of Lion Air, I'd put that one somewhere between the first and second categories mainly due to the novelty. For Ethiopian, that one falls squarely in the first batch. Sorry you disagree, but I strongly suspect the final accident reports will fall closer to my position than yours.
In the Ethiopian case unfortunately I would have to disagree with you, the chances of an unbiased look at pilot actions and training are low given the response to the prior (Lebanon) accident report which detailed numerous pilot errors, with a possibility of subtle PIC incapacitation to which Ethiopian authorities strongly objected and proposed unsupported by facts alternate theories.
This illustrates yet another factor of national/corporate pride hindering global safety objectives, and yes Boeing/FAA are in same category.