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[CEO Dennis] Muilenburg said Boeing is making "steady progress" on a fix to the MCAS flight control system that's at the center of crash investigations in Ethiopia and Indonesia, but he stopped short of faulting the software's basic design.
"We've confirmed that it was designed for our standards, certified for our standards and we're confident in that process," he said. "It operated according to those design and certification standards. We haven't seen a technical slip or gap."
Preliminary reports from both crashes suggest that the MCAS system, which is designed to push the Max's nose down under certain flight conditions, was receiving erroneous data from faulty sensors. In both accidents, flight crews struggled unsuccessfully to take control as the airplanes continually dove just after takeoff.
In his remarks, Muilenburg said the incorrect data was a common link in a chain of events that led to both crashes. It's a link Boeing owns and that the software update will fix.
"[The update] will make the aircraft safer going forward," he said. "I'm confident with that change it will be one of the safest airplanes ever to fly."
Without elaborating Muilenburg also said that in some cases pilots did not "completely" follow the procedures that Boeing had outlined to prevent a crash in the case of a MCAS malfunction.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by eravnrekaree on Tuesday April 30 2019, @11:29PM (3 children)
The more this guy opens his mouth, the more he makes it clear he is a liar or has absolutely no idea whats going on. The Max debacle is a disaster for Boeing, and I have no idea how this company can be trusted again unless there is a top down change in leadership and put people in there who admit they made a major mistake, and recognize that more major steps are needed to regain trust. The more they deny and deny and pretend like nothing is wrong, the less and less trust and faith I have with them because it becomes obvious that if there is a major problem with one of their planes they will not put passenger safety first, and to do that transparency is critical, but instead will try to cover up, shift blame, hide information, etc.
All we have heard from Boeing is misleading comments and statements, The fact is, the pilots originally never were told that MCAS even existed, so stop saying that they put out bullitins and all pilots have been made fully aware. That was only after Lionair.
There is no way to disable MCAS. The only thing you can do is completely turn off all of the power trim on the plane. Due to how the trip tabs operate, aerodynamic forces can make manual trimming impossible. It can be done but extremely bizzare manuvers are needed to relieve the aerodynamic pressure by actually pointing the nose down, unless a Pilot knows what to do and is trained on this, this would be counterintuitive and is not something you would do when close to the ground and you have very little elevation budget to begin with.
Boeing manuals used to mention the procedure for relieving the pressure on manual trim, but, surprise surprise, like so many things, it was removed form Boeings manuals.
So Boeing says to pilots, if MCAS fucks up, disable the power trim. But then the pilot cannot manually adjust trim to take the plane out of its downward trajectory. The Pilot does not know you might actually have to point the nose a little further down to free up the trim lock enough to manually retrim.
All of the above could be avoided IF mcas could be switched off at the control console and this would keep the power trim operational which would help the pilot get the plane out of its dive.
Furthermore, Boeing could have add the AOA disagree light for almost NO COST but instead was charging an arm and a leg for a "useless safety feature" that should have been standard. But if they had included the AOA they would have had to admit to pilots that MCAS existed because thats what the light is useful for otherwise there would be this light there and the Pilot would look at it and say what the hell is that for.
Boeing treated the Pilots like children and intentionally witholds information. The Pilot should know EVERYTHING about the plane. Period, Full Stop. It should be the law. We pay pilots for this so that if something goes wrong, they can fix it. Instead, Boeing was treating Pilots like children because Boeing put PROFITS BEFORE SAFETY.
Boeing is trying to market the planes as a drop in for a 737, so they had to make it look like Pilots did not have to be retrained. If they put stuff in their about MCAS in the manual and AOA lights and trim lock procedures and they had MCAS disable switches, it would be clear that the plane was not quite the same and thus airlines would think Pilots needed retraining, which would make the planes a harder sell.
But by omitting the information they put passenger safety last because the information is critical to safety on the plane and pilots knowing what to do.
Boeing have to know they fucked up big time, they know it was there fault, they know MCAS is a disaster, they know the AOA sensors fail commonly and if they do it will bring down the plane, they know if they had told pilots about MCAS, trim lock procedures, had provided AOA disagree, had put in an MCAS off switch, that 600 people would still be alive. And they continue to lie about all of it and refuse to take responsibility for the negligence.
What Boeing should have done is designed a whole new plane that is stable and can take the larger engines without needing MCAS to correct its errative behavior. I think a top down purge of the CEO is needed and new people need to go in and do just that to restore public confidence. At this point, there is none. We can not trust boeing because they do not tell the truth, if there is a safety problem they cover it up, they will not give Pilots the information they need, they put profits ahead of the passengers.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:01AM
Well they certainly dropped...
(Score: 1) by Rupert Pupnick on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:10PM
Their reputation is dead with you and me and a bunch of others, but I’m not hearing a lot of calls for the CEO’s head on a platter in the media. He essentially told the press that all corporate controls and processes are working as intended even though hundreds of people are dead as a direct result of a decision to save money by compromising safety.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:40PM
thanks. i thought mcas was disable-able.