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Your comment is BS! My neighbor is a SW captain. MCAS on the MAX uses an AOA sensor as its primary control element. The plane has TWO AOA sensors. The “added feature, now standard, is that both AOA’s are connected to MCAS and they now cross-check one another. If the system detects an error now, MCAS goes inop and the pilot has to actually fly the plane without it. A properly trained pilot, who actually knows how to fly the plane without all the neat add-on bells and whistles like MCAS also knows how to deal with “a runaway trim” situation ( as happens when MCAS has a problem with it’s AOA sensor) and turns off the entire system that drives the stabilizer trim and uses the manual trim wheel next to his leg to properly trim the aircraft using the basic flight instruments in front of him to establish level flight. The simple fact is that a lot of foreign pilots ( notably ones in Asia and the ME) are NOT properly trained, so when the electronic $hit takes a $hit, they don’t know what to do. Instead, the evidently just watch the crash develop from a front seat!

My friend, also a retired SW 737 pilot, said the same thing about third world pilot proficiency.

You are egregiously-wrong.

I don’t have time to post the proof; look for yourself.

Only ONE sensor was feeding MCAS. That’s from Boeing itself.

Insofar as your comments on “properly-trained pilot”...we are in complete agreement.

Your comment is BS! My neighbor is a SW captain. MCAS on the MAX uses an AOA sensor as its primary control element. The plane has TWO AOA sensors. The “added feature, now standard, is that both AOA’s are connected to MCAS and they now cross-check one another. If the system detects an error now, MCAS goes inop and the pilot has to actually fly the plane without it. A properly trained pilot, who actually knows how to fly the plane without all the neat add-on bells and whistles like MCAS also knows how to deal with “a runaway trim” situation ( as happens when MCAS has a problem with it’s AOA sensor) and turns off the entire system that drives the stabilizer trim and uses the manual trim wheel next to his leg to properly trim the aircraft using the basic flight instruments in front of him to establish level flight. The simple fact is that a lot of foreign pilots ( notably ones in Asia and the ME) are NOT properly trained, so when the electronic $hit takes a $hit, they don’t know what to do. Instead, the evidently just watch the crash develop from a front seat!

I am obviously not a pilot. I was only commenting on the text from the article.