The Lion Air crew that flew the same airplane the day prior to the accident also encountered the MCAS-induced antistall system, and simply disengaged the system and completed the flight.
The software changes that are now being implemented by Boeing eliminate the need for the crew to recognize and correctly respond to a failure of an angle-of-attack sensor. This is done in recognition that there are airline pilots that are not capable of recognizing and mitigating certain system failures. It is a shame that it took two accidents with many fatalities to understand this, but it is not fair or reasonable to assert that Boeing and the FAA should have known the exact point when systems would become too complex for certain pilots. That said, Boeing was remiss in disabling the AOA “Disagree” message, which would have given pilots a clear prompt to override a system failure. Yet given that the trim wheel was spinning madly and the stick shaker was activated, it is doubtful that a small, yellow advisory message would have made a difference.
Roger H. Hoh
Society of Experimental Test Pilots Grass Valley, Calif.
What bewildering ignorance.
This would be laughable if it wasn't so damned offensive. Possibly the first time since joining PPRuNe in the early 2000's that something has made my blood boil.