Re:Boeing 737 Max: Automated Crashes [video]
by salawat on Tuesday December 31, 2019 @02:08PM
(#21923595)
Note the penultimate Lion Air flight had a third-pilot dead-heading in the cockpit. Not a regular luxury.
Also, the AoA-vane was replaced with a faulty part, and never retested after install if I recall correctly. A procedure complicated by the fact the plane would have had to have been started, shutdown, then restarted since the Flight Computer switches from side-to-side each flight.
So a maintenance tech may have accidentally tested the wrong computer assuming the documentation wasn't up to snuff. Can't say as I've seen that part of the documentation myself; but considering they left MCAS out of the pilot docs, I somehow doubt that it was greatly elaborated on in the maintenance docs as well.
Re:Boeing 737 Max: Automated Crashes [video]
by magduf on Wednesday January 01, 2020 @05:35PM
(#21931210)
I think that 3rd pilot was key not just because of an extra person; IIRC, he had a vantage point the pilots didn't have, and saw what was going on with the trim wheels.
Also, the AoA-vane was replaced with a faulty part, and never retested after install if I recall correctly. A procedure complicated by the fact the plane would have had to have been started, shutdown, then restarted since the Flight Computer switches from side-to-side each flight.
So a maintenance tech may have accidentally tested the wrong computer assuming the documentation wasn't up to snuff. Can't say as I've seen that part of the documentation myself; but considering they left MCAS out of the pilot docs, I somehow doubt that it was greatly elaborated on in the maintenance docs as well.