The real problem with Boeing is Ivy-League MBA's who overruled test pilots

Just read a bit of theater, in which a leftist mag tries to blame Indian software engineers for problems with the 737-Max.  The real problem is Boeing's MBA execs.

Let me explain: I was an Air Force pilot, heavy jets and lots more.  All big jets have autopilots, and they all have a big switch (usually two or three!), usually on the "yoke," so that if the autopilot does anything the pilot doesn't want, you can turn it off--instantly and easily.

The Boeing 737 is an old and very well-proven design.  But when they did the "Max" version they added a new "stability system"--essentially a second autopilot.  But for some dumb reason (and it was REALLY dumb!) they didn't wire this one thru the existing "kill" switches for the regular autopilot.

In case you're a Democrat, what that means is that pilots couldn't turn the damn thing off.

Two Boeing test pilots noticed this, and wrote formal reports saying this was unacceptable.  Can ya guess what happened?

Sure ya can: Since the design was already "frozen," wiring the new "stability" system thru the existing disconnect switches would have cost the company maybe $50,000 per plane.

Duh MBA/finance execs--cunningly moved to Chitcongo, away from the factory and pilots--in effect told the test pilots to pound sand.  "We're great, and you're just dumb guys without Ivy-League MBAs, so shut up.  Everything will be fine.  We have spoken."

Except it wasn't.  When the new system inevitably went crazy, the pilots couldn't turn it off, and as a result 400 or so people died, in two crashes.

We have both radar and "flight recorder" data that show how they happened: Just minutes after takeoff, at barely 4,000 feet, the faabulous new autopilot commanded 40 degrees nose-up, then 70 degrees nose-down (i.e. pointed almost straight down)--and could not be overpowered by the pilots.

And, as noted earlier, could not be disconnected!

Someone made the decision not to give the pilots the ability to turn off the new system.  Okay, stupid decisions happen all the time.  Can't prevent it.  But after Boeing's own test pilots formally wrote up the problem, some MBA up the chain deliberately decided to ignore it,

Roll that around for a minute:  It means this implicitly means he was acting as if he knew more about flying and engineering than the pilots.

And if the new system had been perfect, he would have gotten away with that outrageous hubris.

(Just kidding:  He will get away with it, because Boeing will never identify the culprit whose astonishingly negligent decision resulted in the deaths of 400-ish innocent people.)

So like all things created by humans--Social Security, changing a kid's sex, "green energy," all-mail voting et cetera--when the new system inevitably did something it wasn't intended to do, and could not be disconnected--because the execs had ignored the pilots' finding that it should have been wired thru the disconnect switch--the result was the needless death of 400-ish people.

As a former pilot you cannot imagine how much this pisses me off.

And now we're seeing an amusing, totally predictable theater playing out, with the execs trying to blame anyone but themselves.

Wow, this sounds SO familiar!