Re: Southwest's position (last November)
The MCAS was introduced on the Max because the installation of the new engines changed the center of gravity leaving the aircraft less stable than desired in certain configurations. The system makes the aircraft behave in a similar way to the previous generation of 737 and Boeing seem to have convinced the FAA that it did not need to be covered as a mandatory part of the conversion training. When the system gets an erroneous input from a speed sensor it can misbehave as can any similar system, but you have to know that it exists to be able to do much about it, such as turning it off.