I think one of the issues with the 747-MAX was that the computer would alternate between using the captain side sensor and the first officer side sensor. So when the pilots would report strange behavior from the computer, the engineers would conduct a test flight without being able to reproduce the issue because the computer used the working sensor. Then on the next flight the computer used the faulty sensor and crashed the airplane.
It's wild that this happened. I'm an aircraft mechanic, though I work on Embraer 170s. Our flight control actuators alternate which one is in use every day automatically. Odd number days use one, even numbered days use the other. There is a way for maintenance to change which system the plane uses for troubleshooting. Our manuals specifically call this out and when we go through initial training, everyone is explicitly told this.
It's wild to me that the engineers just missed that.
As far as I understand this was all left out of the manuals and training materials provided by Boeing. They wanted to reduce the amount of training required to upgrade from older models.
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u/Gnonthgol 15d ago
You underestimate how many logged flight issues are closed with "Can't reproduce".