Originally Posted by
fergusd
It may be interesting to note that what appears to be the vast majority of people who are responsible for designing, developing and delivering safety critical systems for a living (I am another example - high software content military life critical systems amongst other things) who have commented find the Boeing approach at best questionable, and for my part very concerning (as a very regular pax). I had expected better from the aviation regulation process.
Equally concerning are the folk that fly these machines who also appear to feel that this type of potentially inadequate (and demonstrably dangerous) systems design is acceptable, it may be the norm, and it may be what you are used to . . . but I'm surprised . . .
Edit : A wise man in the military safety community once told me that if I wasn't personally prepared to trust my life to the system I designed I shouldn't be in the industry . . . I wonder whether that ethos has been diluted in aviation . . . I hope not . .
Fd
I think everyone is in agreement that MCAS needs to be fixed.
None of the aviators that have defended Boeing or MCAS find this situation “acceptable” at all. What we have a hard time accepting is that “professional pilots” could not manage this situation in 2/3 of the events. If they had even done the UAS drill they likely would have survived as both crews lost control of the aircraft as they were racing around at an unacceptably high speed. If either of the crews had trimmed the pitch, a perfectly natural and instinctive reaction, they would have disabled MCAS each and every time. If the crews had done the Stab Trim Runaway memory checklist, which is for events just like this, they would have disabled MCAS just like the crew of the Lion Air incident did and indeed flew the aircraft for an hour and a half with unreliable airspeed and MCAS just waiting to rear its ugly head.
These drills (UAS and Stab Trim Runaway) are not complex; pulling the throttle back to control the airspeed is basic flying just as trimming the aircraft. What has aviators like myself, 737 Driver, Lost in Saigon and others deeply concerned about is that the basic flying skills to deal with these situations are no longer present in today’s professional pilot. When everything works it’s all good...just put ‘er on the autopilot and off you go. But when a curveball is thrown at you, you’re not there when you’re needed the most. That should be of serious concern to the airlines, the regulators, the manufacturers and the professional pilot community.
The measure I used as an instructor and a commercial airline pilot was “would I put my family on an aircraft flown by less than competent pilots”? If the answer is no then we have a problem and I would submit that there is a problem in parts of the world that seem to be crashing aircraft these days.