There’s a non-zero amount of blame that properly lands on the pilots and their training, IMO.
Failing to acknowledge that would be passing up an additional improvement to safety in the system.
Failing to acknowledge that would be passing up an additional improvement to safety in the system.
The issue is that large aircraft require an aircraft model specific training program called a type rating which is rather involved and expensive. Both Boeing and Airbus have common type ratings across multiple aircraft models and sub-models to save on training costs for airlines. To do this, they need to maintain a high degree of controls and systems commonality between the types and in this case, they fudged these limitations by adding a system which was a significant departure from the older 737 type and type rating training programs without requiring additional training on the MAX sub-model.
The FAA claimed they didn't know/weren't told that MCAS was as major as it was. This should help figure what led to the outcome through which their attention was directed away from asking the question that should have been asked.