Missing from all of this discussion is the FAA and their role in this. I am very much looking forward to this trial (Moved to December BTW). The FAA can no longer hide, if they do Mark is lucky, and walks. They have a lot of questions to answer and so far have refused to answer them.
I can see many of you have not read the entire US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation report on aviation oversight. I contains some really interesting information that many either don't understand or are willfully ignoring.
From the Executive summary:
In support of the committee’s investigation, Chairman Wicker sent seven letters, which included
thirty specific requests for information to the FAA. To date more than half of the requested information
remains unanswered or incomplete. Committee staff have reviewed approximately 13,000 pages of
documents over the course of the investigation. Some of the correspondence in response to the
Chairman’s letters appeared to be contradictory and misleading. As a result of the slow response to
document requests, Chairman Wicker requested twenty-one FAA employees be made available for
interview by committee staff. Over the twenty month investigation, committee staff were permitted to
interview less than half of the employees requested. The documents received and the FAA employee
interviews conducted produced inconsistencies, contradictions, and in one case possible lack of candor.
What are they hiding?
Then there is this in section VII, page 44:
The whistleblower alleges Boeing officials were present for the testing and
encouraged the test pilots to “remember, get right on that pickle switch” immediately prior to the
exercise, which they acknowledged. “Pickle switch” refers to the stabilizer trim control
switches, which adjust the horizontal stabilizer via electrical controls, enabling the pilot to
quickly counter the MCAS action. According to the whistleblower, the FAA ACO test pilot
reacted in approximately four seconds in accordance with the assumed reaction time. The AEG
pilot reacted in approximately sixteen seconds, or four times longer than the accepted assumption
of four seconds.
First of all, there is not a single pilot at Boeing that refers to the pitch trim switch as the "pickle switch". NONE. So, whoever was saying that was not Boeing, seems the whistle blower doesn't know who is who. Why do I say that? Because everyone knows that there is a certain individual that uses that term all the time, and that individual does not work for Boeing.
Now the Senate committee did interview the the FAA ACO and AEG pilots talked about above.... anyone know what they said? I do, it's on the next page.
The account of this test and its results were corroborated during an FAA staff interview
as part of the Committee’s investigation. The FAA employee interviewed was aware of the
whistleblower’s ad hoc testing and the official testing event. During the interview, the employee
added he/she knew the whistleblower, and while the test was ad hoc, he/she respected the
whistleblower and believed his/her claims were credible. The employee also independently
confirmed the details and result of the test involving the ACO and AEG test pilots. When
Committee investigators asked a second FAA employee about the official test and disparate
results in a subsequent staff interview, DOT General Counsel objected and would not allow the
employee to answer, citing the link to ongoing 737 MAX recertification efforts. Committee staff
appealed and articulated the importance of oversight and the apparent misconduct the
investigation had revealed. DOT counsel did not permit the employee to answer. It was the
Committee’s understanding that this second employee being interviewed was, in fact, the AEG
test pilot who participated in the official test. DOT OGC provided no additional explanation as
to why the second employee was not permitted to answer the same questions as the first
employee. The time difference between interviewing the two employees was only a few weeks.
Ok, so why is the AEG pilot (the same AEG that the media is telling us Mark Forkner lied to) refusing to talk?
Lot of people want to know the answer to that very question.