Originally Posted by
Chuck D
I get it. We're expected to be extremely competent and it's a reasonable expectation. That said, we can go through all of aviation's history and find stacks of pilot-error caused accidents. Hey, those guys (insert accident - and historically they essentially all were guys) should have known better. Hey, MCAS was fine, they should have been more competent. Who needs TCAS with see and avoid. Who needs GPWS with proper situational awareness for terrain, MOCAs, MORAS etc. Who needs a takeoff warning horn anyways... proper checklist adherence should fully address any issue.
Human factors are always a factor.
I'm not specifically disagreeing with your comment as much as saying it seems shortsighted from a design and certification perspective to not have better systems and system logic when it's reasonably possible to do so.
You’re right. Even with better warning systems, highly trained and experienced pilots make huge mistakes. The max is still just a 737 and every that comes with that. I’d much rather be on something more advanced, but the old turd still has a lot of mileage left in it. It will get certified without EICAS and we will have a ton of them. I’m all for bigger and better, but this isn’t exactly a safety hazard for properly trained crews. On the other hand, when a manufacturer sells a high workload plane with a major design flaw to anyone with a checkbook, they shouldn’t act surprised when someone balls one up.