The FAA Rigorously Tested the Boeing 737’s Software
So how did a problem slip through?
Two Boeing 737 Max 8 airplanes have crashed under similar circumstances in the past six months, one in October in Indonesia and the other in Ethiopia last week. These were new planes, and both had a control system installed that has been implicated in the Indonesian crash, and that might have played a role in the most recent disaster.
The system, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), has one very specific purpose. When flying in manual mode, the MCAS uses data from an “angle of attack” sensor to push the nose of.
