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“Boeing Believed a 737 Max Warning Light Was Standard. It Wasn’t.” This is retrospective ass-covering, to distract us from the fact that the the pilots were ne

“Boeing Believed a 737 Max Warning Light Was Standard. It Wasn’t.” This is retrospective ass-covering, to distract us from the fact that the the pilots were never informed as to the existence of MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) and therefore could not even know how to disable it. The presence of or lack thereof of a warning light being rendered specious. And MCAS read only the one AoA sensor, from the captains side. So to summarize, the pilots don't know about MCAS, MCAS is still engaged even when the auto-pilot is disengaged. A single AoA sensor failed, triggering the MCAS into a nose-down mode, the pilots begin ignorant of this, repeatedly tried to regain level flight using the trim wheel. This they failed at. “The warning light notifies pilots of a disagreement in the sensors that measure which direction the plane is pointed” This wouldn't even work in the way described, in a two sensor system, the computer can't tell which sensor is giving false readings. That's why they hooked up MCAS to only the one sensor. And Boeing didn't tell the FFC or the pilots as they would of had to get the plane re-certified and the pilots retrained.

sundvor 7y ago
It's (almost?) wilful. If ever there was a suitable time for using a military acronym such as FUBAR, this is it. In my own view, leadership should be held criminally responsible for the loss of lives. Of course it will never happen, but that's what ought to happen. Hopefully they'll at least be responsible for liability in a lawsuit by the victims' families. They deserve being taken to the cleaners, well and proper.
- blotter_paper 7y ago
  At this point I feel like it's fair to call Boeing's actions malicious. You charge for safety features that cost you nothing to deploy? Yeah, that's malicious. They knew people could die, but they wanted more money, so they let people die. Now, the company needs to die. Buyers of aircrafts would be clever not to trust Boeing ever again, and buyers of tickets would be clever to avoid flights that use Boeing planes. If everybody acted cleverly, Boeing would die and other aircraft manufacturers would take note. I doubt everyone will act cleverly, but repeatedly informing people of their malicious actions could help facilitate it. Not flying on Boeing planes would help too, but unlike a traditional boycott you have an actual selfish incentive to do so (not dying). Just like a traditional boycott, your individual participation is statistically meaningless unless you're actually in a position to buy a large number of aircrafts. I honestly don't think I'll avoid flying on Boeing planes in the future, but I'm also probably more willing to gamble with my life than most people are; I never said I was clever.
  - sundvor 7y ago
    Agree on malicious, especially given that the Max change was a big hack of an existing airframe. It needed all the extra safety features it could get; to charge through the nose for them was shocking and callous. However, given the amount of Boeing planes out there, and the number of employees, the company dying would be harsh. What needs to happen is a fundamental shift of culture; this is why I think that leadership should be held responsible for what's happened, and that this (with leaders in jail, new ones would have to take their place) would help force the changes that need to happen for safety and engineering quality again to be the number one drivers - not just profits and bean counting. It's an opportunity for them to fully reset the company. Fingers crossed, it will happen.
    - inflatableDodo 7y ago
      >However, given the amount of Boeing planes out there, and the number of employees, the company dying would be harsh. 346 dead from wilful incompetence, followed by utter bullshittery, half-truths, outright lies and finally, when it has to admit what it has been doing, a desperate insistance that executives could not possibly have known. And all the while fighting against them being grounded. Break the damn thing up already.
      - sumedh 7y ago
        > Break the damn thing up already. I dont think any US politician has the guts to take down Boeing, if it goes down there wont be any major US aircraft manufacturer.
        inflatableDodo 7y ago
        That's another reason, given the evident issues with the total fuckwits currently in management, it should be broken up. If it isn't, then the US may end up without a major US aircraft manufacturer.
        pms 7y ago
noisy_boy 7y ago
I don't think the quoted text refers to the computer being able to resolve conflicts in the sensor readings. The computer cant resolve conflicting signals from two sensors, but can certainly detect if the signals are conflicting, and if there was an indicator to warn about such cases, can turn it on giving pilots indication of such conflict.
jandrese 7y ago
In the case of disagreement the only sensible option is to disable the MCAS and alert the pilots. Simply ignoring the secondary sensor is not a valid solution.
- quickthrower2 7y ago
  As I understand it, they wouldn't be trained for a 737 Max without MCAS. Without MCAS it's a different plane.
  - ralph84 7y ago
    This is true. Which means per FAA certification standards MCAS should have been a "hazardous failure" system. Which means it should have had at least two levels of redundancy. Which means it should have never been certified with no redundancy at all for a failed sensor.
  - jandrese 7y ago
    The handling characteristics change, but from what I understand it just tends to pull up. Any pilot should be able to deal with that as long as the artificial horizon is working and they are paying attention. Plus, even if their attention does wander there are other safety systems (like stall alerts) that will kick in to help them. It's not like the MCAS disengagement makes the plane uncontrollable.
linuxftw 7y ago
What's worse: Last I read, they are planning a software patch that makes the system read from both systems. If the sensors disagree, MCAS is disabled. Hopefully it doesn't disable itself when it's needed.
tigershark 7y ago
* Manslauthering Coordinated Augmentation System

sundvor 7y ago

It's (almost?) wilful. If ever there was a suitable time for using a military acronym such as FUBAR, this is it. In my own view, leadership should be held criminally responsible for the loss of lives. Of course it will never happen, but that's what ought to happen. Hopefully they'll at least be responsible for liability in a lawsuit by the victims' families. They deserve being taken to the cleaners, well and proper.

blotter_paper 7y ago
At this point I feel like it's fair to call Boeing's actions malicious. You charge for safety features that cost you nothing to deploy? Yeah, that's malicious. They knew people could die, but they wanted more money, so they let people die. Now, the company needs to die. Buyers of aircrafts would be clever not to trust Boeing ever again, and buyers of tickets would be clever to avoid flights that use Boeing planes. If everybody acted cleverly, Boeing would die and other aircraft manufacturers would take note. I doubt everyone will act cleverly, but repeatedly informing people of their malicious actions could help facilitate it. Not flying on Boeing planes would help too, but unlike a traditional boycott you have an actual selfish incentive to do so (not dying). Just like a traditional boycott, your individual participation is statistically meaningless unless you're actually in a position to buy a large number of aircrafts. I honestly don't think I'll avoid flying on Boeing planes in the future, but I'm also probably more willing to gamble with my life than most people are; I never said I was clever.
- sundvor 7y ago
  Agree on malicious, especially given that the Max change was a big hack of an existing airframe. It needed all the extra safety features it could get; to charge through the nose for them was shocking and callous. However, given the amount of Boeing planes out there, and the number of employees, the company dying would be harsh. What needs to happen is a fundamental shift of culture; this is why I think that leadership should be held responsible for what's happened, and that this (with leaders in jail, new ones would have to take their place) would help force the changes that need to happen for safety and engineering quality again to be the number one drivers - not just profits and bean counting. It's an opportunity for them to fully reset the company. Fingers crossed, it will happen.
  - inflatableDodo 7y ago
    >However, given the amount of Boeing planes out there, and the number of employees, the company dying would be harsh. 346 dead from wilful incompetence, followed by utter bullshittery, half-truths, outright lies and finally, when it has to admit what it has been doing, a desperate insistance that executives could not possibly have known. And all the while fighting against them being grounded. Break the damn thing up already.
    - sumedh 7y ago
      > Break the damn thing up already. I dont think any US politician has the guts to take down Boeing, if it goes down there wont be any major US aircraft manufacturer.
      - inflatableDodo 7y ago
        That's another reason, given the evident issues with the total fuckwits currently in management, it should be broken up. If it isn't, then the US may end up without a major US aircraft manufacturer.
        pms 7y ago

noisy_boy 7y ago

I don't think the quoted text refers to the computer being able to resolve conflicts in the sensor readings. The computer cant resolve conflicting signals from two sensors, but can certainly detect if the signals are conflicting, and if there was an indicator to warn about such cases, can turn it on giving pilots indication of such conflict.

jandrese 7y ago

In the case of disagreement the only sensible option is to disable the MCAS and alert the pilots. Simply ignoring the secondary sensor is not a valid solution.

quickthrower2 7y ago
As I understand it, they wouldn't be trained for a 737 Max without MCAS. Without MCAS it's a different plane.
- ralph84 7y ago
  This is true. Which means per FAA certification standards MCAS should have been a "hazardous failure" system. Which means it should have had at least two levels of redundancy. Which means it should have never been certified with no redundancy at all for a failed sensor.
- jandrese 7y ago
  The handling characteristics change, but from what I understand it just tends to pull up. Any pilot should be able to deal with that as long as the artificial horizon is working and they are paying attention. Plus, even if their attention does wander there are other safety systems (like stall alerts) that will kick in to help them. It's not like the MCAS disengagement makes the plane uncontrollable.

linuxftw 7y ago

What's worse: Last I read, they are planning a software patch that makes the system read from both systems. If the sensors disagree, MCAS is disabled. Hopefully it doesn't disable itself when it's needed.

tigershark 7y ago

* Manslauthering Coordinated Augmentation System