Fixing C's Biggest Mistake

[Walter Bright]

On 1/12/2023 12:14 PM, Don Allen wrote:
> On Thursday, 12 January 2023 at 04:20:27 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> Oh, but the pilots were told. The pilots were sent an EAD (Emergency 
>> Airworthiness Directive) which explained how to disable it and live.
> 
> Lion Air Flight 610 crashed on October 29, 2018, killing 189. The Emergency 
> Airworthiness Directive was issued on November 7, 2018.

That's correct. Months later the Egypt Air crash happened, as the pilots did not 
follow the EAD procedure.

What nobody reports on is that the first MCAS incident resulted in the plane 
completing its flight and landing safely. The pilots simply followed their 
training and did what the EAD reiterated. Boeing had issued the EAD to emphasize 
what to do.

The instructions are simple:

1. restore normal trim with the electric trim switches (all three crews did this)

2. turn off the stab trim system

That's it.

Crew #1: restored normal trim a couple times, then turned it off. Landed safely.

Crew #2: restored normal trim 25 times. Never turned it off. Crashed.

Crew #3: restored normal trim twice (if I recall correctly). Turned off trim 
when the airplane was pointed at the ground. Crashed.