Originally Posted by
Bbtengineer
I’m sorry but you’re treating the team implementing the software as idiots.
At best as people who aren’t expected to actually understand the requirement in any context whatsoever.
People who implement software aren’t supposed to exist in a vacuum. They’re supposed to actually understand what they’re building and why.
The requirement apparently said apply nose down repetitively forever.
Nobody should ever have accepted that requirement.
The people who create the software are
not the ones who define the requirements - in aviation they seldom are even in the same company.
That's why it's so critically important to get the s/w requirements correct.
The requirements did not consider what would happen if MCAS kept trimming the nose down, because it was assumed early in the design process that if the stab trim was doing something the pilots didn't want or understand,
they'd turn it off. Hence the classification of inappropriate MCAS activation as only Major - that's what a stab trim malfunction was classified as.
As I noted previously - the entire MCAS mess grew from that flawed assumption that an issue with MCAS was no worse than Major.