That person was Curtis Ewbank, the young engineer who had tried to get his bosses to listen to his concerns about the MAX’s design, quit in frustration, and eventually rejoined Boeing. His comments painstakingly laid out the scenarios where the plane is lacking. The rudder cables remain vulnerable to engine shrapnel, the issue that thirteen FAA specialists wanted fixed before they were overridden by managers. In a jam of the elevator system, the crew is expected to “literally learn on the fly,” while reading notes from the checklist—something pilots don’t train for in a simulator, he said.
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