Hello Everyone,
MY THOUGHTS:
For a long time, I did not comment on this at all. I wanted to truly understand all of the factors involved. The topic is very complicated one because years ago, Boeing decided to shut down their production line of 757s (in retrospect knowing that was a mistake). A specific airline continued to push them toward making a higher capacity, longer range 737 so that they could carry more people farther but using the same training protocols. The 737 800s, 900s, and 900ers came along followed the 737 Max 8s and 9s.
PILOTS:
The manufacturer, the FAA, and the airlines all thought it was adequate for us pilots to simply train on the difference by bulletins and a few computer videos to watch. I cannot speak for all, but I can speak for myself and a few ace of the base pilots and instructor friends along with union reps who were not comfortable with this level of training at all. It is one thing to show up to a jet in the day time VFR weather conditions with all the time in the world to look around, review, and understand the differences, but it is quite another to be rushed to a flight at night with weather and a new co-pilot trying to quickly recall all the differences we read months prior. Training pilots cost a lot of money but safety must ALWAYS come first.
MORE:
In the situation of Lyon Air 610, and after reading the detailed 78 page preliminary report, there were several days and events that led the maintenance and the pilots to understand that something was wrong with the data being fed to the flight control system that ended up malfunctioning. Boeing has been a champion at designing jets such that they have multiple system redundancies along with the ability for pilots to override a system that is malfunctioning. This series of events was extremely misfortunate and devastating not only to the accident victims, families, and friends, but also for those of us in the profession of keeping you safe.
DETAILS:
I have included an article that I helped contribute to (although not mentioned) which was well written and detailed about the situation. My hope is that changes will be made going forward when it comes to more adequate and comprehensive training when it comes to amount and type of changes to follow on derivative models of aircraft as we move forward.
