I've seen this show before.
Posted on 03/14/2019 2:33:55 PM PDT by rickmichaels
Lion Air Flight 610 plunged into the sea off Indonesia because the pilot “lost (the) fight with his software,” Canadian Transport minister Marc Garneau chillingly told a Wednesday press conference announcing the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 8.
There is nothing wrong with the basic mechanics of the aircraft: Its engines, wings and control surfaces are all believed to be working fine. Rather, the passenger jet may have killed 346 people for the terrifyingly modern reason that human pilots were unable to override a malfunctioning computer.
The cause of the Lion Air crash — and the suspected cause of the recent downing of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 — is a little-known piece of software known as MCAS, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System.
The 737 MAX 8 has heavier and more fuel-efficient engines than prior editions of the 737, a change which causes the aircraft to pitch upwards ever-so-slightly after takeoff.
Rather than instructing airlines to warn their pilots of this quirk, Boeing simply equipped the MAX 8 with MCAS, a program that would automatically tilt the nose downwards to compensate.
In normal circumstances, the system is not a problem, but it only takes a minor maintenance error to turn MCAS into a deadly liability.
In the case of Lion Air Flight 610, the 737 MAX 8 had a faulty “angle of attack sensor”; a small blade sticking out of the cockpit that records the angle of the aircraft in flight.
The sensor was wrongly telling the MAX 8’s flight computers that the aircraft was climbing much more sharply than it was. As a result, pilots were left wrestling with an aircraft that was repeatedly plunging itself towards the ground for no reason.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
Well, yes - but the problem then is a pilot training regimen that leads them to try to fix the autopilot, first - rather than teaching them to immediately switch it off and fix it later.
I have no doubt veteran US military pilots wouldn't have spent two seconds worrying about why the autopilot wasn't doing what it was supposed to.
And you would have thought that the possibility of a bad sensor would have been accounted for. Maybe a periodic and frequent real time calibration.
Take off but then again what do details matter to Boeing SW engineers.
Or Mohammad never intended to land safely. Wants to go out in a blaze of glory. Collect his virgins.
This is a misleading article. The cause of the Malaysian crash is known and that cause is not accurately reported by this piece. Moreover, there is an assumption in this article and widely believed elsewhere that the cause of the Ethiopian airliner is likely identical. That is not true, rather that is just one of any number of possible causes. Lots of speculation, very few verified facts at this stage.
Great post.
Wasn’t there a lot of reports of visual smoke/fire on the second crash?
The software is defective if it cannot handle a faulty sensor.
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Garbage in. Garbage out. That’s why there’s a human in the loop. Pilots on a previous flight did the right thing and disabled the automatic trim.
no one can land a rock
Or cannot react in time. Auto planes are a double edged sword. They may be safer to fly under all conditions, because of a computer programmed to handle all conditions, but there is no constant correcting that seasoned pilots have to do constantly.
Seasoned pilots have to problem solve before anything becomes a problem, so they get to know their planes intimately. With auto planes, it could be weeks or months between correcting problems, so how do become seasoned when you don’t have to do anything for days or weeks?
And you would have thought that the possibility of a bad sensor would have been accounted for. Maybe a periodic and frequent real time calibration.
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That’s why there are humans in the loop. But that isn’t good enough. Boeing now has to account for incompetent pilots.
I've seen this show before.
My husband is a pilot. He often says that with all the automation pilots have forgotten how to actually fly the plane.
Me understanding is that this system does not function when the auto pilot is switched off. I would think the pilot would go to manual mode instantly if the plane was acting abnormally. Fly by looking out the window.
Yes, but such reports frequently turn out to be in inaccurate. Most of the discussions about this accident are fact free zones.
And they think that autonomous cars are ready? True, cars operate in 2 dimensions instead of 3, but there would be thousands of cars crammed into a little space — re: work traffic.
If one faulty sensor can crash the plane then it’s a design flaw. A human would not make the same mistake. Yes, apparently computers can make mistakes.
Your comment has made the stupid list. Congrats.
They should have been able to shut it off, there are two cutout switches that turn off the MCAS right next to the First Officer at the rear of the thrust column. The real core problem is what was causing the incorrect AoA and/or speed data that MCAS was relying on to make its adjustments. Had MCAS been receiving correct data from the sensors the pilots would not have had any reason to turn off the MCAS system. I’ve not seen any 737 MAX 8 or 9 crash anywhere else but Africa and Indonesia. Those areas are notorious for having poorly maintained aircraft and poorly trained pilots.
Not true, MCAS continues to operate even when the autopilot is turned off. To disable it there are two cutout switches next to the First Officer at the rear of the thrust column.
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