MAX’s Return Delayed by FAA Reevaluation of 737 Safety Procedures

[Ian W]

Originally Posted by GordonR_Cape

This WSJ article indicates that the Joint Technical Review Panel report is expected to be critical of FAA approval, and the B737 MAX certification process. Link may be paywalled: https://www.wsj.com/articles/interna...ts-11568666088

along with relying on mistaken industrywide assumptions about how average pilots would react to certain flight-control emergencies. FAA officials have said they are devising new pilot-reaction guidelines after two fatal crashes.

That statement will have huge ramifications for avionics, aircraft design and for pilots; it is a tacit admission that pilots have become deskilled in manual flying.
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The current assumptions made for "FMS disengagement" / "drops into alternate laws" are based on how average pilots would react. IF the average pilot now has to be expected to be less capable of reacting correctly, then the entire cost benefit analysis of automation changes as the systems must be designed to cope with more and only present easier failure cases to the pilot. The argument necessarily becomes - that automation using new intelligent machines need not hand anything to the pilot the actual flying of the aircraft will cease to be the pilot task even in emergencies as the pilots cannot be expected to cope.

That line of reasoning will remove the companies' concerns over pilot shortage, pilots will go the way of flight engineers and radio operators.