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It is not unreasonable for China and Indonesia to ground all of its Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes, although other regulatory agencies have not decided to do so at this time. There are similarities between the Lion Air 610 crash in Indonesia and the Ethiopian Airlines crash this weekend. Both aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff and both had trouble maintaining a climb. This raises the possibility that there is a serious design problem with the aircraft.The final report has not yet been released on the Lion Air crash, however, the preliminary report indicates there was a failure of the angle of attack sensor. The angle of attack is basically how high the nose is pitched up and if that is too much it can cause the aircraft to stall. Boeing added a new computer system to the 737 MAX that I don’t believe is on any other aircraft. It is called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). They had to add this computer because they stretched the original 737 so much that it handles quite differently and so this is supposed to protect the aircraft against a stall by trimming the stabilizer which causes the aircraft to go nose down.It appears that a malfunction can cause the MCAS to trim to a nose down attitude so much that the pilots can’t pull back even with both pilots pulling back as hard as they can. The proper procedure is to turn the MCAS off, but if the pilots are not trained properly to do this it may be difficult to know what to do in an emergency situation.We have ADS-B data from the Ethiopian Airlines jet and it shows a problem with the vertical speed shortly after takeoff. This is some evidence that it may have suffered from the same problem that caused the Lion Air crash. If this turns out to be true, it’s possible other agencies will also ground all 737 MAX aircraft until Boeing fixes the problem.Since the 737 MAX represents more than 20% of Boeing’s revenues, this is a disaster for them. There have been more than 320 737 MAX 8 variants (the one involved in both crashes) delivered since 2017. It has immediately become a very popular aircraft. Boeing has over 5000 orders for the jet.

Remember “Sharpiegate?” Trump announced that Hurricane Dorian was going to Alabama? When it didn't, when that was not the projected path anymore, any normal person would have announced the updated course. Or just shut up and let the meteorologists speak.But not Trump. He's a malignant narcissist, and part of the mental illness is his inability to ever admit he's wrong. So like a small child, he got out his crayon, er, his black Sharpie, and changed the official projected courseJust to make this more ridiculous, he did this three days after that first projected course, when the National Weather Service had a new map. He went on National Television and showed off the obsolete map with his obvious addition. His illness apparently does not allow him to understand just how blatantly obvious this is, much like a young child doesn’t understand it when their obvious ploy does not fool their parents. I believe Trump is entirely unrestrained id, he’s never even developed an ego. And Trump, throughout his entire career, has worked this way. His first instinct in dealing with any problem is to attempt to fool people that the problem is not real. Perhaps he was better at this when it was in the Real Estate business and he was younger. But this bumbling doddery is all that he's got left.So enter hydroxychloroquine. There was interest in this drug as a potential therapeutic treatment for COVID-19, and Trump widely promoted it. Why? Well, for certain, he wanted a quick fix for the pandemic. We all do. Hydroxychloroquine was never even considered to be any kind of cure. The goal was and still is to find a treatment that lessens the worst cases of COVID-19, ideally preventing the cytokine storm your body produces as a reaction to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Or at least somehow preventing the fluid build up in your lungs. The thing that kills you.The general consensus is that hydroxychloroquine not only doesn't work, it makes things worse. It's been removed as a possible treatment by the CDC, the WHO, and other worldwide health organizations. There are effective treatments such as Remdesivir, also nothing close to a cure, but better than other alternatives to date. Trump could easily have started yakking about Remdesivir and at least stopped dispensing harmful information.Why stick with hydroxychloroquine? Does Trump have some financial interest it? No one knows about that so far, but it just doesn't matter. The bottom line is that Trump can't admit he's wrong, regardless of whether continuing that wrong information harms or even kills people.Trump has done exactly the same thing with masks, and of course, the pandemic in general. Trump came out early against masks and social distancing. As occasionally happens, his advisors get him to do the right thing, despite the ego. So two weeks ago, Trump read a speech and encouraged masks. Two or three days later, he tweeted a video from a nutty preacher-doctor, educated in Nigeria, who told us masks don't work, hydroxychloroquine does, and also warned of vaccines made of alien DNA and the dangers of demon spooge. And he's still telling everyone that the pandemic will “just magically go away,” just this week in fact, apparently very soon, too, as he was telling us all this within the context of parents sending their children back to school, a day or two after the first case of COVID-19 in a classroom this season.He always goes back to anything that suggest he wasn't wrong about anything, no matter how trivial or, really, how bad it is for his own Presidency.Read MoreTrump Misleads on Hydroxychloroquine, Againhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/30/power-up-here-why-trump-keeps-pushing-hydroxychloroquine-false-hope/Remdesivir for the Treatment of Covid-19 — Preliminary Report | NEJMTrump’s New COVID Doctor Says Sex With Demons Makes You Sick

A2A. According to the Ethiopian AAIB in their preliminary report, they state that the ET crew followed the procedure outlined by Boeing. I have yet to find the preliminary report online, however one thing is missing from the AAIB’s statement - they do not state whether the pilots overrode MCAS with the electric trim switches and re-trimmed the aircraft prior to turning off the electric trim system with the cutout switches. It would appear not as the news report I read states that the crew turned the trim system back on when they could not manually re-trim the aircraft - strong aerodynamic forces on the stabilizer (like pulling full nose up on the yoke while the stabilizer is trimmed fully nose down) would make it impossible to turn the trim wheel by hand. One of the steps in the procedure is that after disconnecting the autopilot (if engaged) and autothrottles, the pilots should re-trim the aircraft with the electric trim switches on the yoke (if possible) prior to moving the pitch trim main switches to the cutout position. It would appear that the crew may have failed to do this.Either pilot’s use of the electric trim switches on the yoke will stop MCAS commands while the switches are engaged. Once released, MCAS, assuming erroneous data, would resume to act to pitch the nose down. In essence, assuming no other malfunction of the electric pitch trim system exists, the pilots, upon recognizing the malfunction of the MCAS system, can use the electric trim system to re-trim the horizontal stabilizer to a position that makes manipulation of the flight controls in the pitch axis easier, prior to disabling the system with the cutout switches.Edit:. I now have read the preliminary report that is available on aviationsafety.net. My educated layperson's opinion is this:. The pilots forgot the first rule of handling in-flight emergencies: fly the aircraft. After disconnecting the electric trim system, neither pilot realized that the engines were still set to full climb thrust. The aircraft, having been leveled off by MCAS, was accelerating under this thrust. The pilots, instead of reducing engine power, attempted to return to a climb. The aerodynamic forces on the stabilizer at that speed with back pressure on the yoke prevent manual trimming. They re-engaged the trim system to do it with electric trim, but they really needed to slow down first as the overspeed warning had activated. MCAS then trimmed nose down and the rest is history.There was a report that the AOA vane on the left side may have been hit by a bird, damaging it. Given the data reported, this is a distinct possibility, however with the severity of the impact with the ground, I'm not sure if it can be proven one way or the other.One of my critiques of third world pilots is that they are often trained to fly using the autopilot as much as possible. The theory being they have this wonderful technological marvel, so use it. Problem is, then they lack the training or experience to deal with abnormal situations or have good manual flying skills.If the AOA vane on ET 302 was damaged by a bird strike, then this is an altogether different causation than JT 610, which has the appearance of being faulty parts. Regardless of the reason for the unexpected activation of MCAS and the requirement to have to hand fly the aircraft, neither crew had the experience or likely the training to handle it.Not every pilot is a Chesley Sullenberger, Al Haynes or Robert Pearson. That said, IMO basic, decent airmanship skills should have saved either aircraft. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. On ET 302, the pilots didn't even get the first part right. Like OZ 214, they didn't pay attention to speed or their throttle setting.