Originally Posted by
Fly Aiprt
Agree.
The NTSB/JATR reports, as well as Hamilton's testimony on Wednesday, emphasized the fact that the MCAS misfire was never tested in the sim, let alone in flight. And that Boeing was not aware of the consequences.
They replaced it with a trim runaway event just to suit the assumptions.
So any "pitch and power" or "runaway trim" argument just misses the point.
The KNKT report states that Boeing did test MCAS misfire in the sim, but without any associated cause and therefore without the warnings and other symptoms associated with whatever triggered MCAS in any real world case. It is not clear from the report whether those operating (flying) the sim were aware of MCAS in advance. On the basis of their testing Boeing assessed the risk of unintended MCAS operation to be controlled.
KNKT carried out test flights which included MCAS activation on the same terms as the accident flight - these were done with knowledge aforethought and demonstrated that if the event was expected then the outcome, though challenging, could be managed through application of the right NNCs in the right order.
None of which makes the implementation of MCAS 'right' - as previous posters have pointed out it is a system which is designed to run for 10 seconds in "normal" operation and yet a pilot is supposed to recognise runaway trim in 3 seconds. the information given to air crew on the operation of this system was minimal and no training was offered.
Boeing recognised that the system was powerful enough to pile an aircraft nose first into the ground and completely failed to assess the risk accurately