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Does anyone actually know or suspect what's wrong with these planes? Hardware issue? Software issue?
Boeing is issuing a software update in April. https://boeing.mediaroom.com/news-releases-statements?item=1...
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Problem is, if they've added so much automation that trained pilots cannot determination the proper course of action 100% of the time, the system is at fault. "You don't have to do anything, the plane will fly itself. Unless there's a catastrophic emergency. Then you better remember everything you haven't practiced from 18 months ago" seems like a failed implementation.
That's definitely a mischaracterization of what the airlines do. Anyone that has been in a cockpit of a plane knows that you fly by checklists. There's a checklist procedure for almost any scenario they will run into (of course not every). This exact issue was seen by other airlines and the pilots followed the checklist procedures to safely regain control of the plane as expected. In theory, these checklists are opti…
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AFAIK the avionics on both variants are the same. A pilot who is (properly!) trained and type-rated on one should be able to effortlessly use the other. The only difference, again AFAIK, is the passenger and cargo capacity, length, and the range.
The 737 type rating (training/licence addon required) covers pretty much the entire family of 737s from the 200 to the max. The avionics are the same but because the planes have substantially different air-frames, the software parameters and possibly some functionality will differ. It's not unreasonable for differences in these flight parameters to be a factor.
Basically, the larger/more powerful/further forward engines on the MAX would cause the airplane to behave differently to other 737 variants in some situations, and MCAS is designed augment pilot input and allow the pilots to fly the planes as they would have flown other 737s (and allows pilots to fly MAXes under the same type ratings as previous 737 models). However, in edge cases (in the case of Lion Air, erroneous sensor input) the airplane might do something totally different from other 737 variants. Evidently Boeing didn't even require pilots to be told about MCAS, because all it (supposedly) does is make a MAX feel like an older 737.
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It looks like Norwegian is already asking its 737 Max flights to return to their departing airports, at least according to this recent screenshot I found on reddit [1] [1] https://i.redd.it/6gtecemacpl21.png
Wow. This is pretty ridiculous considering all three of these planes seem to have been closer to their destination than the origin, making it safer to just finish the planned flight.
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Wow. This is pretty ridiculous considering all three of these planes seem to have been closer to their destination than the origin, making it safer to just finish the planned flight.
Do these groundings also apply to ferrying the plane?
Does anyone actually know or suspect what's wrong with these planes? Hardware issue? Software issue?
Let me also enter the impopular Null Theory: Maybe there is nothing in particular wrong with these planes, and they were just hit with two random accidents.
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Yep, that was the big selling point since airlines hate retraining pilots. Totally backfired in that regard though.
It sounds really stupid for Boeing if you put it that way. I can imagine it looks good on the marketing material, 'no pilot retraining required!', but as far as I understand from all the analysis so far, it's actually not that hard to disable the new MCAS system and prevent a crash. As a pilot you only need to know it is there, and what happens if it somehow fails. I would be surprised if they had sold even a single…
That might be enough for the plane to need a separate type certificate, meaning hundreds of millions of dollars expenses for Boeing to get it certified, and full new-type pilot training costs for every airline to fly the aircraft. (Plus, time, and ongoing crew management to juggle pilots certified on one but not the other.)
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The engines are larger than previous models and had to be moved forward, which causes it to (potentially) stall, so they implemented an anti-stalling mechanism called MCAS which relies on a particular sensor, which can malfunction potentially. They also didn't inform pilots that this system even existed which means they have trouble diagnosing the problem and will potentially only make it worse by trying other things…
>and had to be moved back Small typo: He says "forward and up" in the video.
No wonder McDonald Douglas changed the DC-10 into the MD-11.
What would financially happen to an airplane company with a fleet of dozens of Max 8s?