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Comment by ethbr1 | Hacker News Reader

Pilots are definitely trained how to disable the autopilot, if needed.

Afaic, the fault apportionment was Boeing documentation > airlines >> pilots > Boeing technical design.

This wasn’t related to autopilot and they removed mention of the MCAS system from the documentation to support the main selling point of the 737 MAX, which was that existing 737 pilots would be able to switch easily without recertification. They knew that they’d lose most sales to Airbus if the aircraft were compared on their merits so they were banking hard on their huge pool of certified pilots as the competitive edge.

If you listen to podcasts, these two episodes of Causality are excellent:

https://engineered.network/causality/episode-33-737-max/

https://engineered.network/causality/episode-50-737-max-ethi...

You might enjoy this. I have a pin that blinks "AOA Disagree".

Back when I flew regularly before covid, I was tempted to create a bunch of these and hand them out to the flight crew for the flights I flew on.

Ha, playing hardball! I wonder whether you’d find pilots who are Boeing loyalists who’d take offense, or if those guys are even madder at the current management for letting them down.

Not sure why you’re bringing up autopilot— the MCAS system runs even when the autopilot is disabled.

Edit: Also, how does the fault lie with the airlines? Boeing didn’t document the existence of MCAS in the flight manual or training materials.

Because the comment I was replying to

>> Because the pilots should have been trained to unplug the computer to stop it from crashing the plane?

Yes.

The fault lies with the airlines because I don't for a second believe they didn't put pressure on Boeing to get the MAX certified without mandating retraining.

And then once that was done, didn't dig into the details too hard about what changes were made.

I have a low tolerance for 'I set up all the conditions and incentives to encourage you to break the law... but you should take all the blame when it explodes.'

At some point, the customer has to take some responsibility for what they asked for.

It’s easier to blame Boeing because they made the damn thing its documentation. We know for a fact they are at fault. Some or all of the airlines may or may not have put pressure on Boeing.

Wasn't MCAS designed to activate when A/P is disconnected, also?

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