Its already discussed here and was in front page for a while: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25473215" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25473215</a>
Hang on: Boeing and FAA officials coached test pilots towards an outcome of a test related to a system where, if there were a problem with it (as there has been in the past), people will die in relatively large numbers (as they have in the past)?<p>What is wrong with these people? If the plane can't be brought up to snuff without you fudging the test results then you can the thing. There is no other way.<p>Because if you don't can it what's going to happen? More crashes. The subsequent investigations will reveal that there is still a problem with the plane. Investigators will follow the trail back to the certification, and then you'll find yourselves in a whole heap of trouble.<p>Oh, and Boeing will go under. Where's your shareholder value then?<p>Of all the short-sighted, obtuse, shady, unethical, blithering idiocy we have all witnessed in various quarters in 2020 this ranks amongst the worst.<p>I honestly no longer care what the certification status of the 737 Max is. There is such a cloud of untrustworthiness around the plane, its systems and its certifications that there is no way I will ever risk flying on one.<p>Boeing have done some amazing things in the past. The 747, for example, was for its time an extraordinary aircraft and is still without doubt the most iconic passenger airliner even today. The Boeing museum near Seattle is incredible, and I highly recommend it. In more recent years it's clear that they've lost their way, but I hope that they are able to get back on track, and back to building more amazing aircraft. It's time to let the 737 Max die though.
They were testing to see if pilot reaction times were fast enough to counter MCAS.<p><i>> The whistleblower alleges Boeing officials were present for the testing and encouraged the test pilots to “remember, get right on that pickle switch” immediately prior to the exercise.</i><p><i>> “Pickle switch” refers to the stabilizer trim control switches</i><p>The implication is that the pilot reaction times were only fast enough to counter the original MCAS design if they were explicitly reminded how to react immediately before the exercise.
> Investigators accused Boeing and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials of "attempting to cover up important information".<p>This will hamper peoples trust in both Boeing and the FAA for years. It doesn't take much for flyers to choose an alternate flight that isn't on a Boeing. And for overseas aviation authorities to not trust FAA airworthiness certificates.
They definitely deserve to 'go under' because of the way they handled this. Anything less and it's going to be enabling these shannanigans
I'm unfamiliar with the FAA so is there a particular set of circumstances that would give incentive to them being complicit in the cover up?<p>Do Boeing contribute funding to the FAA in a direct and discretionary way?<p>I can't comprehend how a federal body would aid a private company like this when the ramifications could be so severe (threat to life and to the FAA's public credibility).
It seems that you’re not going to die, if the pilot is from a major western airliner company.<p>However, if the 737 Max is flown by a pilot from a 3rd world country, then, yes, you might die.<p>And this was the problem to begin with. The pilots in 3rd world countries were not even trained on the 737 Max. They just told them, that it flew the same way as the older 737 planes.<p>To everyone’s horror, they found out the hard way. While the plane was in flight.
So in the tests to the feature that they claimed did not need additional pilot training to be safe, they effectively provided spot training for the pilots testing it to demonstrate that training wasn’t needed... Am I getting this right? At what point do these people start to become criminally liable for all the deaths caused by this circus?
I’m shocked! Boeing and the FAA have proven to be such a truthful and reliable company up to now...<p>Do I need to put a big Borat style Naaaat on the end to stop these down votes?