He is right about one thing - looking at the maintenance logbook is a standard part of any preflight. If you looked at the logbook and saw that the maintenance

He is right about one thing - looking at the maintenance logbook is a standard part of any preflight. If you looked at the logbook and saw that the maintenance team had been dueling with the MCAS system and that it had activated inappropriately on four prior occasions, that really should have been at the front of their minds. You're absolutely right. Unfortunately the crew read the logbook and saw an STS (speed trim system) issue written up. When flight 610's crew looked at the logbook, nobody outside the Brazilian authorities knew what MCAS was or to expect anything like it. STS trims the stabilizer under different conditions than MCAS and typically trims in a counter-intuitive manner, conditioning pilots to non-intuitive trim adjustments in normal flight. STS can be turned off for the duration by applying pressure in the opposite direction on the yoke, MCAS cannot. With that in mind, yeah, the crew on flight 610 had a malfunction at the front of their minds. Just not the kind that was going to transpire.