Thanks for posting that video; it was very helpful.
I like to watch the Smithsonian Channel show “Air Disasters” that covers various aviation disasters and the following investigations to determine the cause(s). The resulting “lessons learned” from each disaster led to improved products, procedures or training. Future lives were saved at the cost of lives lost in each crash.
On thing I noticed in a decent number of episodes was that the sequence of events leading to the crash BEGAN with faulty Angle of Attack information (from bird strike damage to AOA mechanism or the AOA being frozen in place for example). Your posted link’s video explained that one of software changes is to make the 737’s system redundantly rely on BOTH AOA sensors instead of only one at a time. With the critical importance of AOA information, I think it would be good to have a third AOA sensor (protected from normal exposure to environmental hazards) on planes that automatically “popped out” when potential problems were indicated on either or both of the primary AOA sensors that are always environmentally exposed.
Anyhow, thanks for the informative link.
AOAs are nice but, based on my time as an A-10 and F-15E fighter pilot, AOA is simply not that critical of a system. Fighters fly all sorts of maneuvers at all sorts of air speeds and attitudes that are far more extreme than some straight and level commercial jet, and having lost an AOA (Bird strike low level route) you just fly the jet. You, if you are trained properly, you know the AOA without some gauge. If it looks right and feels right, then the AOA is nice but you won’t lose control or fall out of the sky if you lose the gauge.