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

Wall Street Journal ^ | March 12,2019

[Red Badger]

Version 2 point uh-oh.....................

[Carriage Hill]

It was in beta testing; not ready for prime time.

[dynoman]

Very good description of MCAS;
https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-safety/what-is-the-boeing-737-max-maneuvering-characteristics-augmentation-system-mcas-jt610/

Boeing says pilots can easily override the system, and it’s covered in the manual. The pilots that previously flew the Lion Air accident aircraft did disable the MCAS system and made their flight safely. The accident pilots didn’t. It seems to be a training/awareness problem. We don’t yet know if MCAS was the cause of the most recent accident.
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/boeing-to-upgrade-737-max-flight-control-software-456540/

Also witnesses said the Ethiopian plane was was trailing smoke and debris before it crashed;
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-airplane-witnesses/ethiopian-airlines-plane-trailed-smoke-debris-before-crash-witnesses-idUSKBN1QS1LJ

[old-ager]

Stupid question here. How could MCAS be designed so that it is even capable of making the plane do a nosedive?

Why should it have to be turned off?

[MarchonDC09122009]

Sounds like engine failure according to witness accounts -

RE: “Also witnesses said the Ethiopian plane was was trailing smoke and debris before it crashed”

[allendale]

Boeing is America’s premiere manufacturing company. Heretofore it has made the products that the world needs and demands. However if anyone thinks that the company will announce a correction to some badly designed software, pay damages and then resume full production, they are badly mistaken. Very noisy persistent people with a variety of motives are going to demand when was Boeing aware of problems with the software and why after the Indonesian crash, they did not take definitive corrective action. Attempts will be made to hold Boeing executives possibly criminally accountable for the Ethiopian crash and deaths. There will no doubt be Congressional hearings, grandstanding , and inevitable debilitating regulations. This company is in for a very debilitating, long rocky ride. It and the American economy will suffer. The socialist Democrats will not allow this crisis to go to waste.

[BenLurkin]

Half a dozen witnesses interviewed by Reuters in the farmland where the plane came down reported smoke billowing out behind, while four of them also described a loud sound.

“It was a loud rattling sound. Like straining and shaking metal,” said Turn Buzuna, a 26-year-old ... who lives about 300 meters (328 yards) from the crash site.

“Everyone says they have never heard that kind of sound from a plane and they are under a flight path,” she added.

Tamirat Abera, 25...said the plane turned sharply, trailing white smoke and items like clothes and papers, then crashed about 300 meters away.

“It tried to climb but it failed and went down nose first,” he said. “There was fire and white smoke which then turned black.”

SOURCE: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-airplane-witnesses/ethiopian-plane-smoked-and-shuddered-before-deadly-plunge-idUSKBN1QS1LJ

[butlerweave]

Upgrading to Windows 10 ?

[UCANSEE2]

Reminds me of the movie INDEPENDENCE DAY, where Will and Jeff are getting ready to fly the alien fighter.

Will pushes forward on the controls. Ship goes backwards.

“OOPS”, he says as he then reverses the ‘arrow’ placed on the console by the techs.

[shanover]

Words fail.

[heavy9]

There was an expression years ago when aircraft security systems were in vogue . “ you cannot built a high enough fence “ meaning you could always take an aircraft down if you wanted to ..
you cannot protect an aircraft from harm if its an inside
threat.

[allendale]

Unfortunately not be until the black boxes ( voice and data recorders) are analyzed, will it be known just what the pilots were struggling against in those final minutes. It very well may be they were trying to override with the manual controls, contrary computer generated directives. As in the Indonesian crash, they were not adept at disengaging the computer. Tragic and sad. Hopefully Boeing executives were not sitting on costly necessary changes.

[upchuck]

Boeing’s experience is kinda like Windows 10. Release software you know is buggy and wait for the end users to find your mistakes and start raising hell.

Except in Boeing’s case the end users are very silent :(

[Scrambler Bob]

Lindbergh, Pangborn, Apollo Missions, Shuttle landings ... didn’t these guys pilot their own machines (oops, don’t leave out Amelia Earhart).

And how about those IA cars that hit other cars?????

B-17’s B-24’s B-29’s B-52’s DC-3’s flew gillions of miles successfully without ‘computer controlled stall correction’.

[Scrambler Bob]

Make that AI cars.

[Scrambler Bob]

Why should it have to be turned off?
= = =

MCAS is wonderful till it tries to kill you.

Then you should pull out your 357 and plug it, quickly!

[old-ager]

sure sounds like it!

but I don’t get how it is even capable of doing a nosedive

seems like even a stall would be a better outcome

[cpdiii]

amirat Abera, 25...said the plane turned sharply, trailing white smoke and items like clothes and papers, then crashed about 300 meters away. “It tried to climb but it failed and went down nose first,” he said. “There was fire and white smoke which then turned black.”

If this is accurate, you are probably looking at catastrophic in flight failure due to a bomb or turbine disintegration.

[Waverunner]

Of course this could be like the 767 - Egypt Air Flight 990. That would explain the nose down poistion of the aircraft.