Originally Posted by ShyGuy

Let’s be honest, even after the second crash the FAA was not going to ground the plane. Their hand was forced as other nations started to ground the plane. Once it became obvious that al the major authorities had grounded the plane, the FAA realized the optics looked back if they remained the one big regulator that did not follow suit. To save face, they put out some BS of “while others grounded the plane right away, we were the first to ground it based on science.”


Regardless, both cases (but especially the Ethiopian) had elements of pilot error. Boeing deserves the bulk of the blame though, for putting this system and withholding its knowledge from the manuals and training.

That said, the length of this grounding has become a political joke. Looks like it will be almost one full year before it takes off again. The software fo has been ready since Summer. It’s hooked up to both AOA sensors, so both sensors would have to read a high alpha in order to fire MCAS, and even then MCAS will be limited to fire one time with a very limited amount of nose down trim.

The MAX will do just fine. There shouldn’t be any more crashes related to MCAS, just as there weren’t any more crashes from rudder hardovers.