
New report on the 737 Max blames 'inexperienced pilots' not Boeing - balls187
https://www.businessinsider.com/737-max-blame-inexperienced-pilots-boeing-nyt-report-2019-9
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typeformer
This “report” and article based on the report are obvious hit jobs against
experienced pilots on behalf of a major defense contractor trying to push the
blame off their shoulders. The truth is that the system, both the software and
hardware, was faulty and unreliable and the pilots were not informed of its
complex problems (many of which Boeing didn’t even know about) and because
Boeing wanted avoid having their customers to pay to retrain them in addition
to having the FAA recertify the plane.

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cjbprime
> didn't know their altitude

Presumes they felt they could trust their instruments under the circumstances
of the emergency. Asking ATC for your altitude when you're unsure doesn't seem
unreasonable?

> didn't throttle back

I think not throttling back when you have an unreliable airspeed indicator (as
these flights did) is actually a checklist item. If you don't know how fast
you're going, you don't know how far above stall speed you are.

Anyway, this seems really crappy. Saying that the pilots couldn't deal with
runaway trim seems very unfair when MCAS placed them in an aerodynamic
situation where the runaway trim procedure doesn't actually work because you
can't supply enough physical strength to the trim wheels and you've had to
disable the motor because it was behaving maliciously.

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dangus
Here's the original report linked in the article:

[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/magazine/boeing-737-max-c...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/magazine/boeing-737-max-
crashes.html)

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gus_massa
[Thanks for posting this.]

It's a disgusting article. There is a tradition of not badmouthing the dead
that sometimes reach ridicule levels, where all the dead are saints and
heroes. This articles goes unnecessary too much in the other direction before
there is a final result of the investigation.

> _The same cannot be expected of airline pilots who never fly solo and whose
> entire experience consists of catering to passengers who flinch in mild
> turbulence, refer to “air pockets” in cocktail conversation and think they
> are near death if bank angles exceed 30 degrees. The problem exists for many
> American and European pilots, too. Unless they make extraordinary efforts —
> for instance, going out to fly aerobatics, fly sailplanes or wander among
> the airstrips of backcountry Idaho — they may never develop true airmanship
> no matter the length of their careers. The worst of them are intimidated by
> their airplanes and remain so until they retire or die. It is unfortunate
> that those who die in cockpits tend to take their passengers with them._

Is this paragraph really necessary in an article that discuss the cause of the
accident that killed the pilots and the passengers??? There are a few more
similar parts, let's pick one more:

> _Boeing has grown largely silent, perhaps as much at the request of its
> sales force as of its lawyers. To point fingers at important clients would
> risk alienating not only those airlines but others who have been conditioned
> to buy its airplanes, no matter how incompetent their pilots may be._

