Originally Posted by
LowObservable
Moreover, what people call a "crew error" usually isn't. It's an indication that crew selection, training and maintenance of competency fell short of what was required to handle an off-nominal situation, and it's consequently related to the degree of abnormality that faced the mishap crew.
Now, I am not sure that even the FTFA-fundies here would argue that the unwarned-against activation of MCAS - a running-in-background gadget that commandeered the most powerful effector on the airplane - wasn't quite severely abnormal. And did it occur on a highly automated airplane? Negatory, sir. It afflicted a Topsy-developed hybrid of a simple 1960s servo-mechanical jet with a 21st-century digital overlay.
Now, let's take this further. "
Degree of abnormality" compared to what? If it's "compared to what crews are used to in non-Topsy, post-1980-certificated aircraft" then we have a genuine training challenge.