Radio transmissions between the pilot of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 and air traffic controllers were described as "panicky," reports The New York Times. A person who listened to the transmissions described the pilot's desperate demeanor as he asked to return to the airport shortly after take-off on March 10.
An open question in the investigation of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, and the crash of a Lion Air 737 MAX in Indonesia on October 29, 2018, is whether either of those pilots knew what to do when their planes reportedly had “control” problems on board.
"The systems on a modern aircraft are designed to be easy to use and also easy to deactivate,” said Captain Aaron Murphy, a retired airline pilot in Canada, who serves as an instructor on big jets.
Murphy demonstrated what should have happened in a 737 simulator set up to recreate the dynamics presented by the MCAS system. MCAS is suspected of playing a role in the two crashes.
In the safety of the simulator, Murphy allowed the plane to go nose down, then killed the trim switches, and manually brought the nose up.
"This is a training issue because you should know how to deactivate the system. But if you’re not even aware that the system exists – you wouldn’t even think of it."
Boeing has been criticized for not informing pilots about the MCAS system in its original flight manuals. The system was intended to always run in the background as a safety device to prevent the MAX from pitching up and going into a stall due to changes in the engines and engine position from older 737s.
The fix centers on how to throw two switches to correct a condition known as “runaway trim,” something pilots say they are all trained for. Since the October 29 crash of the Lion Air MAX jet in Indonesia, the FAA, Boeing and other agencies sent out notifications on the presence of MCAS and how to recover from a MCAS system failure due to an incorrect sensor input.
MCAS only exists on the now grounded fleet of 371 Boeing 737 MAX jets, because the plane has newer engines mounted further forward. MCAS does not exist on earlier models, which is why they are not grounded.
