>Knowing about it doesn't help. They crash anyway. That's why there's a yaw damper as required equipment.
They don't do it not knowing about and having experienced Dutch Roll, however, with a check pilot. We train for the unexpected, use technology as best we can to mitigate, and just have to have faith that after a certain point we've told the pilot everything they need to know, and leave them to do their thing. Regardless of whether Dutch roll has killed someone or not they knew about Dutch roll going into it. They knew yaw dampers were a thing. They knew how and when yaw dampers were active and why. Not so with MCAS.
>The flight before the Lion Air crash had an MCAS failure, too, and the pilots simply switched off the stab trim and they landed safely. They did't know about MCAS, either.
Walter, c'mon man. We've been through this before.
The penultimate Lion Air flight had 3 pilots, one with the luxury of paying attention to anything the other two actually flying the plane weren't; None of them knew what was going on, and to be frank, Getting it right for the wrong reasons just sets the stage for more disaster later. You can also look at the documentation regarding stabilizer runaway, and it is specifically described as a continuous uncommanded trim actuation.
MCAS isn't continuous, it's discrete. On for 10 seconds, off for five. While the procedures may be the same, an unprimed pilot being caught unawares by an aircraft feature completely foreign to them, and unelucidated in the documentation is liable to lose precious time if the failure happens at an inopportune time of the flight.
Also, throw in the failure of autopilot to stay engaged, and inability to lock the computer out without losing the trim switches, it's a losing proposition all around.
>That isn't how certification works.
I'll butt heads with you there. A type certification certifies a particular configuration of hardware and software to be flown in certain airspace for a particular purpose. While operational leniency is to be expected so a failure of a component not on the Minimum Required Equipment checklist doesn't ground planes at every little problem, I patently reject the proposition that having a type certificate granted, then experiencing a configuration change during normal operation that compromises the ability for the airframe to meet the prescribed criteria for being certified as airworthy does not discertify that particular instance of the alleged type from immediate airworthyness.
It is the configuration that is certified. Anything that meets that configuration within reason may be used for the certified purpose. Departure from said configuration warrants immediate remediation as quickly and safely possible. Generally that judgement call is by custom left to the pilots as to whether to continue or reroute for repairs.
If you lose a system required to use the plane for it's intended purpose in flight, then you should damn well be prepared to put that plane on the ground to get it fixed. Period. This type of thing isn't a game, and the more the industry treats it like one, the less inclined people will be to trust and utilize it.