# FAA starts Boeing 737 Max test flights **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 29, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faa-starts-boeing-737-max-test-flights/913691 "2020-06-29T19:51:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 18
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faa-starts-boeing-737-max-test-flights/913691/18 "2020-11-18T19:15:42Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > More generally, what is not being done - do you mean there has not yet been a big enough push for more automation/AI in commercial aircraft? And by “day of reckoning” do you mean another 100+ fatality event? More generally what is not being done is a thoroughgoing investigation and change in training and checking standards to ensure that all pilots worldwide are good enough to handle the problems that can and do occur. What is not being done is recognizing that the mere fact you’d like to hire another 1000 qualified people does not mean you can create another 1000 qualified people for low cost in a hurry. The industry cannot expand faster than skilled experienced people can be developed from scratch. What is not being done is recognizing the hazards inherent in highly computerized highly complex systems and reprogramming all airplanes to deal better with defective sensor inputs and false warnings. Much of certification thinking is still based on 20 independent devices that are first integrated between the pilots’ ears. When instead a computer is pre-integrating them and presenting the outcome to the pilots, that brings up a whole new sort of GIGO error that is not, IMO, being addressed as thoroughly as it ought. By “day of reckoning” I mean that the uncontrolled growth in the airline industry, and especially in the third world, has already resulted in a severe dilution of the skill levels of many / most crews. Which will continue to lead to brittle failures where otherwise manageable aircraft malfunctions proceed to pilot-looses-control-and-all-aboard-die accidents. Continuing to blame the manufacturers for each failure to build a pilot-proof airplane is going the wrong way. While pilot-proof airplanes may well be in our future, the current state of the art cannot build them. Boeing totally screwed up the MCAS by making 2 dumb interrelated decisions that were never considered together by the relevant experts at Boeing or at FAA. But what killed those 300+ people was crappy piloting and poor systems engineering in general, not MCAS in specific. That’s just the place the accident occurred, not the why. Think surface cause versus deep cause. After a slow / confused start, this thread from this summer covers some good ground and has relevant comments from both @Richard_Pearse & me. It bears reading if you’re curious along these lines. > [@Whats your most feasible new idea for air safety](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-feasible-new-idea-for-air-safety/915327): > > After watching a ton of those “Mayday” and “Air Disaster programs”: Those lightly manned long distance Fedex/air cargo plaes. Give those poor slobs parachutes. Its only a few guys. Of course ANY airline flight is unlikely to crash, but in the event something happens that renders the craft unlandable, the crew could bail out. This one is out there. Almost any new idea will be as there have been decades of studies already done. How about some sort of emergency rocket? There were plenty of pr… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faa-starts-boeing-737-max-test-flights/913691)._