Quote:
Originally Posted by delayedreflex
I guess one question would be - is a MCAS malfunction easily identifiable as a case of runaway trim? Certainly the one Lion Air crew successfully identified that (well technically, it has been reported that it was an off-duty pilot who identified the correct solution). My understanding is that the MCAS would activate intermittently - does that make it different than other runaway trim scenarios that the pilots should definitely have been trained to identify?
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Runaway trim is runaway trim, you deal with it the same way. If your aircraft is pitching up or down without pilot input, there is likely a trim issue, address it as such and figure out the cause after the fact once the aircraft is under control. Boeing designed the MCAS system to be a 'blind' safety mechanism to prevent an imminent aerodynamic stall, hence the reason most knew little about it. It is supposed to be the proverbial 'safety blanket' to prevent the wings from stalling at high angles of attack. Unfortunately, Boeing did not seemingly design the system as good as it should have been with more redundancies and comparative data.
There is no replacement for experience and proper training in the aviation world, be it pilot/AME or ATC. Based on what has already been reported, the Lion Air crash appears to have been preventable regardless of the faults that correlate back to the bad AoA data and MCAS system (unless something else comes to light).
Acey made some great comments in a previous post regarding pilot skill/knowledge - notably mentioning the Asiana crash in San Francisco which really highlighted the human factor in aircraft accidents.
Regardless of the final findings from both MAX crashes, pilot experience/training are most surely to be mentioned alongside the other factual information found.