My humble two cents for evaluation:
It seems again that FAA and The Boeing Co. are trying to find 'someone' or 'something' guilty of activating MCAS. They did not succeeded with the pilots, now they are going for the 'cosmic rays'. They are imagining scenarios so far out and crazy that gives me the chills. Because they are saying the general public that a computer can fail and flip the result of calculation or a memory position (twice in a couple of months) due to cosmic rays?? come on... the scenario is so bizarre, that I seriously doubt about all this. Seems the 'proper way' to introduce a reformulation of the automated flight control systems on the 737 after a major f*@ked up piece of software.
Boeing is 'ready' to deliver the redesign to use both flight computers? In a month's time?? looks like a child trying to hide the broken pieces of the TV's remote after mom and dad told not to touch it.
Those ill fated aircraft had control issues for sure, the indication of the AoA was wrong even before taking off (major fault not detected by the computer), if the main gear is contacting ground, and in T/O configuration @ 80 kts I simply cannot be 75 deg nose up... or... the hell of a sloped runway.
The MCAS activating 'only' after flaps 0... so... if the flaps are 1 notch down, well OK, lets die everybody as men... MCAS will not act... as soon as the pilots selects 0... hang on for the ride everybody!!! seems now that an aircraft cannot be in a sharp turn stalling with flaps 1.
MCAS is an 'automated' system kicking in unannounced while on 'manual' flight to 'help?' those monkey rider pilots who are stalling the craft... seems an insult to a pilot
and now everybody is talking about cosmic rays and bit flip on microprocessors. It's classic 'corporate' story deviations... well you know... maybe it was a memory flip...
I work with realtime automation systems... the main point of all this is to analyze the inputs and the memory every single scan of the program (the computer is reading every cycle the status of the inputs and analyzing the program to produce the actions or outputs), even if 5 bits where flipped, the program must evaluate again in the next cycle and find that MCAS is really not activated, flipping back the result of that operation to the normal status. If not, they 'really' have to check their routines, specially with a system that is modifying the flying surface with the highest authority on the aircraft.
This has 'cover up the main issue' written all over the place... B and FAA know they f*@ked up big time... and they are trying to divert attention.
Well, you know... now, everybody is thinking, well this same computer is on all the NGs... so, they could flip bits... if I am the owner of one of those crafts, or a lessor, I should immediately request a fix for my poor troubled computer...
Rewriting a MAJOR change that is a computer controlling another is a really huge task, not something to be done in a month's time. And at the end... if the computers disagree? which one is right? are both wrong? you need a third to control the other 2 with a voting system... is not that simple.
Maybe the big B is going to teach the pilots with an hour class on an iPad at the end, and business as usual...
I'm not saying that is not possible that such event may ever happen... but in here the possibility that 2 events of this class have kicked in, sustained in time enough to bring down 2 planes, is well... that's impossible. Also, Ethiopian aircraft presented the issue on a previous flight... well, it was a BIIIIG cosmic ray that foul the computer... and also probably foul the technicians on the ground when they checked system integrity,,, hummm... maybe Flash Gordon fired the ray and pointed very well to the microprocessor ... come on guys of B and FAA, get real!
They are looking for an excuse that let them modify the software without having to take the load for the previous error...
again, this is my humble opinion... everybody is free to take their own conclusions, have a nice day using your brain.