Originally Posted by
Water pilot
Somehow, from the information provided by the aircrew, the technicians were able to figure out that they had a malfunctioning AOA indicator -- which was replaced. The second one failed as well, for reasons that are not known (to us). So from a maintenance point of view, the reports were adequate.
Expecting line technicians in Ethiopia to discover a critical design flaw in a system that Boeing was keeping at least semi-secret is asking too much, in my opinion. Put yourself in the shoes even of a tech working in America, even if you had intimations that the shiny new 737 MAX was completely %$@!$ in rare circumstances and the entire fleet should immediately be grounded, would you pursue that line of inquiry? You have your 18 months of training from a vocational/tech school and you are going up against all of the PhDs at Boeing? I think not...
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very few PhDs at boeing are managers and real decision makers - they invariably work for some MBA power point ranger who made it up the chain of command. And the software is often nowdays checked by outside contractors who make far less money. At least thats the new ( since 1997 ) Boeing- not the old Boeing...
NG and MAX issues are proof - profit first, second, third priority - if you disagree you are encouraged to spend time with family or spend more time understanding the org chart and why you are not on it .