There is a narrative that it is 100% Boeing's fault and the poor pilots who fought valiantly and heroically could have done nothing at all to save the plane. Reality is more complicated, but people don't seem to like that and the votes here reflect that.
The pilots of Ethiopian 302 did not follow the checklist fully. Read the preliminary report. Here is the checklist (from Air Canada, but Ethiopian should have had a comparable one): https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1080x1177/thumbnail_03dc14b910e0b79951314db9c04969b942057c2b.jpg
They retracted the flaps. Any pilot who had actually read the information available about MCAS at the time should have known not to do this. MCAS is disarmed with flaps deployed.
They allowed their speed to get dangerously high. There are human factors issues for why they did, but it was still a mistake.
The trim system is designed in such a way that pilots can always override MCAS motion with the thumb switch. No, they do not need to wait until MCAS fully screws them over for 10 seconds; I say again they can interrupt it. And MCAS will not interrupt them as they wind the trim back - although it will take them longer as (perversely) they can only command a slower rate of change than the computer. Unless there is a yet-unrevealed further trim control problem (which would be the biggest bombshell yet) the pilots still had enough control to counter MCAS.
Of course Boeing is at fault. But that doesn't leave the pilots saintly and blameless. What they were faced with, is a high-stakes game of Bop It. They should not have been made to play it, and Boeing must accept the blame for that, but it was not an unwinnable game.
The designers and engineers in comfortable offices had years to get it right. The pilots had a few minutes amid a cacophony of alarms and the threat of death. The pilots did not deserve to be in that situation. But they still had a chance and did not grasp it. That is the unfortunate story here. It should not be taboo to say this.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
