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Wow, that's just idiotic. Did the FAA ever audit them???
I agree - tantalizingly similar is a good description. The fact that problems unrelated to the MCAS were reported on other a/c confirms the need for not jumping to conclusionsIt's also a bit early to comment until the "Black Box" evidence is made public. The crashes are tantalizing similar BUT.... IMHO the FAA should ground these aircraft until the cause of crash #2 is in simply in the name of caution.
Computer automation is a wonderful thing until it doesn't work. I can hardly wait until the automated cars become common
I agree - tantalizingly similar is a good description. The fact that problems unrelated to the MCAS were reported on other a/c confirms the need for not jumping to conclusions
Why is no one asking the obvious question: This being the 2nd incident, why didn't the FAA immediately ground the world fleet after the 1st? I remember when the landing gear on the left wing of a Twin Beech at Burlington Airport in 1990 had collapsed, but the pilot retained enough wits(what would you d if the plane your flying, collapses on one main when you are just touching down?) to firewall it and circle around the cabbage patch to call the boss. I saw that as it happened. The UPS van that was waiting to pick the freight had to leave, because 45 Delta(the Twin Beech) had to go back to Paine Field. What happened was the retraction strut on the left main broke off on one end.I am surprised no one has started a topic on this a/c. Two fatal crashes in the last 5 months.
Wow, that's just idiotic. Did the FAA ever audit them???
It would not be the first time...
Read up on American Airlines Flight 96, and how the FAA did not issue a Mandatory AD for DC-10 cargo door design flaws, because of a handshake agreement between the FAA and McDonald Douglas.
It took the crash of Turkish Airlines Flight 981, killing almost 350 people, a year and half later to get changes made to cargo door.
Because there just wan't enough data to substantiate a fleet grounding. Right/ wrong or indifferent, the feds aren't going to ground a fleet of aircraft unless there is an obvious "smoking gun," and at that point they'll issue at least an Airworthiness Directive to address the problem.Why is no one asking the obvious question: This being the 2nd incident, why didn't the FAA immediately ground the world fleet after the 1st?
Because there just wan't enough data to substantiate a fleet grounding. Right/ wrong or indifferent, the feds aren't going to ground a fleet of aircraft unless there is an obvious "smoking gun," and at that point they'll issue at least an Airworthiness Directive to address the problem.
Case in point:
The Rudder Story
Airbus have three flight control computers, the loss of one will allow the aircraft to continue flight with minimal systems degradation. The loss of two will have major degradation, but will still allow a 'return to land' scenario. i.e. no single system failure should result in an uncontrollable aircraft. MCAS seems to be the single point failure in these cases.
But no smoking hole in the ground.But, as Qantas proved several years back, if one of those three boxes has a different software revision the three boxes will fight each other and cause erratic flight tossing pax around, with injuries, and an emergency landing
Additionally the FAA was allowing Boeing (and all other manufacturers too), to certify their aircraft themselves. That is a big conflict of interest, and should not be allowed.
This applies to not just Boeing and US manufacturers (or even aviation) but to every form of industry since the late 90s and applies to any company with an aerospace ISO9000 accreditation since 1999, including Airbus and other European aircraft and component manufacturers.
The Aviation version of the ISO is Aviation Standard AS 9000 and contains some 50% more requirements than the ISO and also requires compliance with certain supplementary documents.
If you work for an organization where there are no dedicated independent inspectors who physically check each critical stage of your work you are working for a company that has, or is regulated under a quality management system which is derived from AS9000. For maintenance staff and pilots the requirement to have any flight control work inspected by at least one other person (two in many countries) who were not physically involved in the original maintenance is just one small example of where AS9000 is reflected in your work.
See AS 9000 - the Aerospace Quality Management System — Quality Management System for a brief overview.
Because the MCAS system has more trim authority than the pilot's yoke mounted trim switches. When MCAS commands nose down, the electric trim operates at high speed in a series of bursts punctuated by pauses. Pilots can countermand that with their rocker switches, but those default to low speed trim, so it's "three steps forward and two steps back", a losing proposition in the long run. The 737 pilots I've talked with (none of them MAX) all said in their experience a trim system that behaved like that would have been identified as "runaway" or "uncontrollable" and immediately cut out, and hand cranked manual trim would become the order of the day.Question is- After the pilots presumably disconnected the A/P, and the trim was still causing them fits, why couldn't it be re-trimmed?
I don't know Chris - there seemed to be a lot of chatter but nothing solid. It seems that after the second crash a flurry of reports came out about issues encountered about the time of the first one. I haven't had a chance but I'm going to look through SAIBs and SDRs to see if there was anything reported through FAA channels at the time before and after the first crash.Joe, I normally would agree with you, but I think in this instance there was enough data to warrant a grounding. Especially with the latest info coming out about the FAA.
My friends know for years I have said , " I'm glad Microsoft doesn't build airplanes". I see people often drive up to my neighbor's driveway and find out they relied on their GPS unit and never looked at street signs or house numbers. The great masses will need us old guys to read maps for them when the grid is shot down.