Boeing didn’t crash the planes. In the Lion Air case, the CA was at least able to use common sense and pull the nose up AND use the trim switch to help out. That’s how he managed to stay afloat and fight against MCAS 20 times. They crashed because he gave the FO controls, while he tried to look in the QRH for a solution. The FO was beyond incompetent. He had an extremely checkered history and should not have been flying planes. Once he had the controls, he only pulled back the yoke. He trimmed for about 2 seconds and that was it. Pulled back on the yoke and never touched trims or throttles.


For Ethiopian, it’s even worse. They knew about the phenomena. They should have flown out of it just fine. Even after cutting out the trim cutoff switches, despite being very fast, the FO did trim the nose manually with the wheel handle..... he just trimmed the wrong way (nose down) and then reported to the captain that he can’t get the nose up. In their desperation they re-engaged the trim cutoff switches but even after than only used the yoke trim switches for a couple few clicks. Again, sheer incompetence. And the FO with 300 something hrs and 152 hrs in a Boeing was beyond useless.



The grounding has gone on way too long and is nothing more now than politics. The FAA wants to save face and is dragging this out. EASA and China will only lift the ban when they want, and for political posturing will not do it when the FAA does.


Yes, Boeing was an idiot for hooking up MCAS to only one AOA sensor and not putting any of this info in the manuals. But still, the planes crashed because of incompetence. And for Lion air, their MX department got a free pass in the NTSC final report. Ridiculous! The crash happened at the end of October yet the first instance of an AOA screw up was Oct 9. In the USA, major airlines would have removed the plane from service after that many write ups until the AOA sensor issue was repaired/fixed or replaced outright. That’s the difference. It’s not just about pilot training and skills. That plays a huge factor too. But over in Indonesia, the MX crew kept signing the plane off so it could get fixed at the main hub station, but they never fixed it either. The last flight before the fatal crash, where the JSer saved the day, that operating crew flew the plane all the way to Jakarta with the CA stick shaker going off the entire flight. Hell with that, they should have turned around and headed back to Bali, and the CA should have done a complete and thorough write up. Instead, he continued to Jakarta, landed, and then wrote up the problem in the most ridiculous manner that never addressed the main meat of the matter. Jakarta MX at Lion Air in their typical incompetence signed it off. As usual. The next day it crashed.