Boeing had been working prior to crash on extensive software changes to Max cockpit flightcontrol.

Wall Street Journal ^ | March 12,2019

[MaggieMay]

Boeing making a more extensive software change to the flight-control system in the 737 MAX pior to Ethiopian tragedy than industry officials initially anticipated.

[House Atreides]

Damn... I sure hope they’re not using H-1B developers for this software upgrade.

[livius]

Interesting. Both of these crashes were flights from pretty much Third World countries...I wonder how much that had to do with it?

Some American airlines (Delta, for one) maintain their own staff in foreign airports, some don’t...and certainly, the airlines of most small countries use their own native staff. So maintenance should probably be looked at.

[House Atreides]

If this is accurate, you are probably looking at catastrophic in flight failure due to a bomb or turbine disintegration.
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“Eyewitness” testimony such as this frequently turns out to be false claims by attention seekers. Investigators will quickly get this confirmed/refuted.

[offduty]

It was my understanding the MCAS system was only active when the aircraft was being manually (autopilot disengaged) flown. Since there is a high angle of attack upon rotation and initial climb out, I could see there being a problem. But knowing this, you’d think Boeing would anticipate the high angle of attack and not allow the MCAS to activate during this phase of flight.

Unless there is an anomaly in the angle-of-attack monitoring device (there are 2) it remains to be seen what the actual cause will be. Hopefully, the FDR and CVR will tell the tale.

I wouldn’t be surprised that at the end of the day, it will be something the crew did/failed to do that contributed to the loss of this aircraft. The loss of these two MAX-8 in the space of less than 6-mos may just be a coincidence.

[PAR35]

Let me help you with a little copy editing:

“Boeing is China’s premiere aircraft manufacturing company.”

There. That works better.

Of course, BMW is the leading American car exporter.

[TheNext]

Do not blame Boeing for the bad software.

They got half price on foreign Indian programmers who regularily lie on their resumees.

Passengers die but we can address that in the next version.

[MaggieMay]

This added info is from ‘DallasNews’ . U.S. regulators are mandating that Boeing upgrade the plane’s software by April but have so far declined to ground the planes. China, Australia and the European Union have grounded the 737 Max 8, leaving the U.S. and Canada as the only two countries flying a substantial number of the aircraft.

The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was included on the Max 8 model aircraft as a safety mechanism that would automatically correct a plane entering a stall pattern. If the plane loses lift under its wings during takeoff and the nose begins to point far upward, the system kicks in and automatically pushes the nose of the plane down.
After the Lion Air crash, the FAA issued an airworthiness directive that said: “This condition, if not addressed, could cause the flight crew to have difficulty controlling the airplane, and lead to excessive nose-down attitude, significant altitude loss, and possible impact with terrain.”

[MaggieMay]

I read this in the DallasNews:

U.S. regulators are mandating that Boeing upgrade the plane’s software by April but have so far declined to ground the planes. China, Australia and the European Union have grounded the 737 Max 8, leaving the U.S. and Canada as the only two countries flying a substantial number of the aircraft.

The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was included on the Max 8 model aircraft as a safety mechanism that would automatically correct a plane entering a stall pattern. If the plane loses lift under its wings during takeoff and the nose begins to point far upward, the system kicks in and automatically pushes the nose of the plane down.
After the Lion Air crash, the FAA issued an airworthiness directive that said: “This condition, if not addressed, could cause the flight crew to have difficulty controlling the airplane, and lead to excessive nose-down attitude, significant altitude loss, and possible impact with terrain.”

[offduty]

I read a report from Boeing that was similar, but...considering the high angle of attack of the aircraft at rotation and the subsequent lowering of the nose to gain speed for a better rate of climb, it seems the MCAS system has inerrant issues from the start.

I also read the system inputs elevator trim in gradual increments based on attitude and speed and can be overridden by the pilots with either input of manual or electric trim inputs.

Unless the controls are being pushed forward by the crew, it doesn’t sound like the MCAS system can force the aircraft into a nose-over attitude by itself. IIRC, it takes almost 10 seconds for the MCAS system to go to it’s full deflection.