5 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Bottom line is the black box should give the cause, and pretty quickly. If runway trim is the problem, then the two recent crashes are most likely related, and the FAA will probably ground the fleet. From what I have read, it looks like altitude was erratic and the aircraft took a steep nose dive. I believe that is what happened on the first crash. 

Runaway trim is a worry.  I have had this happen sometimes even on MSFS and Xplane aircraft and of course P3D now too.  It is very important before engaging the autopilot, to have wheels up, flaps retracted, and manual trim for cruise climb, I find at least from sim perspective.  Whether this holds true in commercial, I do not know, but in my Light Sport flying it seriously mattered before turning off the runway heading after takeoff.  At Falcon field in Metro Phoenix, one aircraft went down in the orchard with all souls lost that I always climbed out over at one thousand fpm, my Allegro 2000's initial climb rate before throttling back.  But I believe in their case it was engine failure and the impact with the trees that caused the main damage, unless they stalled. 

Sometimes we need eye witnesses to report an accident but we know with TWA 800 how varied those reports even were.  I have seen a mid air explosion several times around Luke that looked almost like flak, despite it being the same cause the effect looked different every time due to atmospheric lensing we'd have on humid days, something as a trained meteorologist from college can happen and is interesting if one sees it....

6 minutes ago, Holdit said:

I learned to drive in a Mk 1 Ford Fiesta. Great little car. 

You are not the first person I have heard say that, my German teacher in the 70's also recommended it...  My poor Mom's first car was a red 1970 Toyota Corona with low miles.  Bad, bad car. 

She traded it in for a 70 Ford Maverick.  I have a 1/18 scale die cast model of a 74 Maverick, a collectors item, it is now only found rarely.  Though two door, it was roomy in the back seat and in our 70's gas crisis banged out 25 miles per gallon on the highway on a six cylinder engine.  That car lasted her a decade, she brought it to well over 150K miles, had some rust issues on the roof but no body rust, and before airbags, it saved her life when she was rear ended. 

The insurance company totaled it for a dent less than eight inches across on the starboard rear corner.  She took the cash, forced them to let her keep the car, and drove with what we called her "badge of courage" until she got a Dodge Omni to replace it.  I took some lessons in it, my first car was an '86 Sentra Wagon.  I preferred the Sentra, both cars had manual steering but the Sentra wagon had sports car quality manners and saved my life one time when a car crossed an uncontrolled, state highway intersection, after not completing a stop, approx 45 feet ahead of me. 

I made a maneuver I had never practiced but was told about by a car buddy of mine, swerving to the right to avoid him, swerving to the left to get back in the lane.  I timed my swerve right at the intersection and we missed each other by inches but my heart grew to about ten times its size wondering, like my being run over last Sunday, how I could survive that.  My car stayed in a straight line despite my scorched and smoking tires.

The American Idol singer, Danny Gokey, did a remake of the country song "******* take the wheel" and not to lapse spiritual, but that is exactly what he did that day, last weekend, and several other times in my life--like every morning when I wake.

John

12 hours ago, threegreen said:

Some more mainstream media sites can't even use correct photos, showing pictures of random airplane crashes. One was even showing Asiana SFO accident photos on their report of Sunday's disaster.

exactly

Found this interesting:

 

Quote

 

Continued Airworthiness Notification to the International Community
To: Civil Aviation Authorities Date: March 11, 2019
From: Federal Aviation Administration Aircraft Certification Service System Oversight Division, AIR-800 2200 South 216th Street
Des Moines, WA 98198
 

...

 

Ongoing oversight activities by the FAA include:
- Boeing’s completion of the flight control system enhancements, which provide reduced reliance on procedures associated with required pilot memory items. The FAA anticipates mandating these design changes by AD no later than April 2019.
- Design changes include:
 MCAS Activation Enhancements
 MCAS AOA Signal Enhancements
 MCAS Maximum Command Limit

 

 

From what I've seen, it seems there might be some confirmation bias as regards jumping from ADS-B data as reported to the conclusion "same thing as Lion Air".  And I think there still is stuff we don't know about Lion Air, such as why the crew seemed to be dealing with the issues for a while, but then couldn't/didn't.

 

Once the FDR is read out we will know straight away if the MCAS was activated or not.  What I find worrisome is the possibility it isn't MCAS but some other system issue that bit them in the butt.

 

scott s.

.

 

18 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Hi Jon, I’ve flown to South Africa twice. Once in 2008 and again in 2011. Returning courtesy of BA in 2008 we overflew Libya and I can still remember all the lights in the desert and thinking this would not be a good time for an emergency to be declared with Gadafi being in full lunatic mode at the time. 😜

The second time was Dubai to Durban and sitting on the right side I can remember looking down on Mogadishu. An even worse location to have an emergency! 😳

Fortunately both flights were without incident but there are some scary places in the world you’re only a few miles away from.

Visit me in Cape Town sometime! I often fly to King Shaka as well..

Edited March 12, 20197 yr by Peter Webber

25 minutes ago, Peter Webber said:

Visit me in Cape Town sometime! I often fly to King Shaka as well..

Sadly no longer possible as my cousin who lived south of Durban moved to Ireland a few years ago to be closer to family.

20 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Hi Jon, I’ve flown to South Africa twice. Once in 2008 and again in 2011. Returning courtesy of BA in 2008 we overflew Libya and I can still remember all the lights in the desert and thinking this would not be a good time for an emergency to be declared with Gadafi being in full lunatic mode at the time. 😜

The second time was Dubai to Durban and sitting on the right side I can remember looking down on Mogadishu. An even worse location to have an emergency! 😳

Fortunately both flights were without incident but there are some scary places in the world you’re only a few miles away from.

Hi Ray,

Yes, I remember many anxious nights shouting Tripoli, Tripoli at the HF with no reply, only to make contact later on and being told off for not calling earlier  ! I prefer the cold dark open water of the Atlantic Ocean, much less stressful.

 

Runaway trim due to AOA sensor issue. I knew it! That new maneuvering augmentation system that the pilots have no interaction with is a bad idea! It almost certainly receives data form the AOA sensor.

10 minutes ago, Avidean said:

Runaway trim due to AOA sensor issue. I knew it! That new maneuvering augmentation system that the pilots have no interaction with is a bad idea! It almost certainly receives data form the AOA sensor.

Has this just been disclosed, because that was the issue with the first crash?  If it is the same, Boeing and the FAA will be in deep trouble if another plane goes down. 

11 minutes ago, Avidean said:

Runaway trim due to AOA sensor issue. I knew it! That new maneuvering augmentation system that the pilots have no interaction with is a bad idea! It almost certainly receives data form the AOA sensor.

link?

It looks like all 737 MAX 8 planes have been banned from UK airspace until further notice....

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/12/ethiopia-airlines-crash-boeing-max-8-planes-banned-uk-airspace/

Edited March 12, 20197 yr by Christopher Low

Just on the news, 52% of the 737 Max fleet is grounded including the UK, Ireland, Australia, France. FAA is now under pressure to ground the plane, which they should have done 2 days ago. The FAA always wants body count to be high before they act. 

Edited March 12, 20197 yr by Bobsk8

14 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Just on the news, 52% of the 737 Max fleet is grounded including the UK, Ireland, Australia, France. FAA is now under pressure to ground the plane, which they should have done 2 days ago. The FAA always wants body count to be high before they act. 

And US has announced no ban and the 737 is safe. 300 dead in 6 months! 

11 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Just on the news, 52% of the 737 Max fleet is grounded including the UK, Ireland, Australia, France. FAA is now under pressure to ground the plane, which they should have done 2 days ago. The FAA always wants body count to be high before they act. 

Germany,  Norwegian airlines  added... The list grows by the hour.

14 minutes ago, zmak said:

And US has announced no ban and the 737 is safe. 300 dead in 6 months! 

The FAA is waiting for the next crash before they act.