Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about suspected safety flaw

Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by mimixco on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @09:24PM (#19374858)

I'm a developer and not a pilot but I think that's pretty relevant. In both of those (two separate) cases, the pilots were aware of MCAS (it's not supposed to run when autopilot is on, right?) and tried to avoid any interference from it, yet they experienced interference anyway. One of those examples was nose down which sounds like MCAS and the other was unexpected leveling off at the wrong altitude.

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Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by mannykannot on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @10:15PM (#19375095)

There is no evidence, in these reports, that 'interference' from MCAS had anything to do with it. The fact that the problem occurred when the autopilot was engaged (and MCAS, therefore, supposedly disabled) and was resolved by disengaging the autopilot, suggests a problem with the autopilot, not MCAS. The captain's report speculates about possible causes, but MCAS failure is not on the list, even though, as we know, the captain was aware of MCAS and its failure modes.

From the reports:

Synopsis

B737MAX Captain reported an autopilot anomaly in which led to an undesired brief nose down situation.

Synopsis

B737 MAX First Officer reported that the aircraft pitched nose down after engaging autopilot on departure. Autopilot was disconnected and flight continued to destination.

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