Because I dug it up for another comment, commercial carriers operating under Part 121 (roughly: scheduled passenger and cargo operation) had 4 fatal incidents in the last 10 years. [0]
Totalling 6 deaths.
In 10 years of US commercial carrier aviation.
One of those was literally 'the engine exploded and threw part of the turbine into the cabin (and also shredded some of the wing)'!!
Which resulted in 1 person dying and a successful landing.
The two MAX 8s that fell from the sky were 100% Boeing's fault and could have happened in the US. If 5% of airline traffic is in the US you can renormalize those hundreds of dead and you get dozens dead.
I can't find specific numbers but estimates say about one in three has a military background. That's an awful lot.
Not surprising given that pilot training is really really expensive. Airlines love former military pilots because they are a significantly lower financial risk for them. Put them into type rating and off they go, it's rare that one ends up as a dud.
No matter how good they are and how prescient, that doesn't help them if the aircraft computer decides it's stalling, forces a nose down and they cant fight the controls.
But, even if we assume omnipotence from these American pilot gods, and assume they can fly outside the bird and Superman-style catch it, they are still only 30% of American pilots. Just another population to normalize out.
But that's not what happened. According to every report, it is possible to take back control, it's just very much not intuitive and the situation was confusing.
According to the Seattle Times
> However on both accident flights, the angle-of-attack sensor failure set off multiple alerts causing distraction and confusion from the moment of takeoff, even before MCAS kicked in.
> On the Ethiopian Airlines flight, for example, a “stick shaker” noisily vibrated the pilot’s control column throughout the flight, warning the plane was in danger of a stall, which it wasn’t; a computerized voice repeating a loud “Don’t sink!” warned that the jet was too close to the ground; a “clacker” making a very loud clicking sound signaled the jet was going too fast; and multiple warning lights told the crew that the speed, altitude and other readings on their instruments were unreliable.
You can find some of the US reports complaining about MCAS here https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/5766398/ASRS-Reports-... and it includes
> I manually positioned the thrust levers ASAP. This resolved the threat
Then there's
> B737 MAX First Officer reported that the aircraft pitched nose down after engaging autopilot on departure. Autopilot was disconnected and flight continued to destination
> I called "descending" just prior to the GPWS sounding "don't sink, don't sink." The Captain immediately disconnected the autopilot and pitched into a climb
Another
> Takeoff and climb in light to moderate turbulence. After flaps 1 to "up" and above clean "MASI up speed" with LNAV engaged I looked at and engaged A Autopilot. As I was returning to my PFD (Primary Flight Display) PM (Pilot Monitoring) called "DESCENDING" followed by almost an immediate: "DONT SINK DONT SINK!" I immediately disconnected AP (Autopilot) (it WAS engaged as we got full horn etc.) and resumed climb
Okay, awesome. But how much of that was luck with the 737 Max that they didn't crash on US soil by US airlines?