Good things happen on Southwest flights too.

[Pappy13]

I see too many bad stories about Southwest Airlines, so when I see a good one I feel the need to share.

https://www.fox4news.com/news/california-couple-who-just-adopted-newborn-girl-showered-with-love-on-southwest-flight

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Most of the bad thing in the news about swa recently have really been more boeing being FUed up then swa.

[Pappy13]

Most of the bad thing in the news about swa recently have really been more boeing being FUed up then swa.

The Boeing issues are just a regression to the mean. They've been getting a pass by everyone including the FAA for too long and it's finally come back around on them. The issues aren't nearly as bad as they seem, they are just being highlighted right now. Someone asked me the other day if I would get on a Max aircraft if they were flying today and the answer is I absolutely would and I work in maintenance for SWA. The problem is not with the aircraft design, the reason for the crashes was with the pilots/maintenance on the aircraft without question. Would I get on ANY aircraft in Indonesia? Not on your life.

Not sure if I have linked this article in the past. If I have my apologies, if not this is a terrfic read if you want to know what really happened.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/magazine/boeing-737-max-crashes.html

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Can’t read bc of paywall.  Not everything is on Boeing, but they were much of the root cause.  Here is my understanding of what happened.  Is you can compare flying to driving, each new vehicle has a learning curve and some are harder than others.  Most people can switch from a honda accord to a ford focus with little or no retraining, but adapting to a formula one from a golf cart requires substantial retraining.  In the case of the Max the change was as much of a change as going from an 18 wheeler to a Nascar but they claimed it was like going from a Camry to a Lexus ES so nobody got proper training.

[Pappy13]

Hmmm...maybe you have read more from the NYTIMES then I have or something? I can get to that page without having an account. I'll see if I can capture the text of that page and put it here when I get home. Some really fascinating info there.

You're on the right track with your analogy but there's a lot more to it then that. Indonesia doesn't have the same safety/maintenance/pilot training programs in place that the US has, especially SWA. That's a fact. These accidents would have NEVER occurred in the US because the maintenance is better and the pilots and pilot training are better. What caused them to crash has a very simple solution that was even employed by the pilots on the previous flight for the first crash although only after the 3rd (ghost) pilot told them the solution. Once that aircraft landed in the US that problem would have been fixed and the aircraft would not have been allowed to take off again on the next flight with the same problem. It's not the aircraft was that much different then the 737, it's just that the pilots have no clue in Indonesia how to fly a jet if ANYTHING goes wrong and the fact that the maintenance on those aircraft is such that not only does stuff go wrong, but when it does it doesn't get properly fixed. It was just easier to blame Boeing and Boeing is taking the heat for Indonesia because they sell them a lot of aircraft. The only thing worse for Boeing then negative publiciity in the US is losing all the sales from a large carrier in Indonesia. That would be instant death for them.

[Pappy13]

I tried to capture the text for the article, but unfortunately it's much larger then the max allowed in posts (20,000 characters). I'd have to break it into about half a dozen posts I think, it's quite a long article. But if you really want to know the truth this article has it. If you really like to read it send me a PM with your e-mail and I'll forward the text to you. I think that would work.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

No big deal on the article. 

I am guessing Ethiopia also doesn’t have the same standards as USA either. 

Still from what I saw on the news of US pilots from multiple airlines talking about lack of initial training (don’t recall if SWA was represented) is concerning.   If it was just one or two airlines I would blame the individual airlines but this seems to be too big for that.

[Pappy13]

I am guessing Ethiopia also doesn’t have the same standards as USA either.  

Yes you would be correct on that.

Still from what I saw on the news of US pilots from multiple airlines talking about lack of initial training (don’t recall if SWA was represented) is concerning.   If it was just one or two airlines I would blame the individual airlines but this seems to be too big for that.

That's actually covered in the article. The reason that there was no specific training for this MCAS system was because the system was designed to mimic the flight control of the 737. It was specifically designed and added to the MAX to make it perform the way the 737 would perform in a stall. Boeing assumed that if it ever kicked in the pilots would react the same way they would for a stall on the 737. The problem is that the system is based on sensors that can malfunction and if they do then it's a false warning and you're really not stalling and then you need to know how to handle that situation (you simply turn off the automatic trim switches like you do on the 737 and trim the aircraft manually). Boeing felt any pilot that flies a 737 would know this and it shouldn't have taken but a few seconds for the pilots to figure out what to do, but these pilots couldn't figure it out because their training is very poor (the article goes into it). The poor maintenance on the aircraft was responsible for the malfuctioning sensors. Combine the 2 events and you have a deadly situation. Both events however are completely preventable with proper maintenance and pilot training. SWA has been flying the MAX aircraft since 2013 without incident.

Yes Boeing should have told everyone about the MCAS system in hindsight, but that's not really what caused the crashes.

[fyo]

Holy whitewash, Batman.