https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48752932
Quote:
In a tweet, the FAA said: "On the most recent issue, the FAA's process is designed to discover and highlight potential risks. The FAA recently found a potential risk that Boeing must mitigate."
A source familiar with the situation told the BBC: ""During simulator testing last week at Boeing, FAA test pilots discovered an issue that affected their ability to quickly and easily follow the required recovery procedures for runaway stabiliser trim (ie, to stop stabilisers on the aircraft's tail moving uncontrollably).
"The issue was traced to how data is being processed by the flight computer."
Unquote.
So did Boeing not know, or were they hoping the FAA would not notice, or were they in 'lets run this by the FAA and see how they react' mode? The issues must be fundamental and intractable if after eight months work they are still struggling to find a fix. Or are they in denial, trying to push through a software modification when some more fundamental physical change is required? It won't be easy to compromise with the regulator under scrutiny and other regulators looking over their shoulder.