I curious as to if any incidents have taken place on US airlines, and what were the actions taken.
True that there aren’t any MAX-8 simulators.
But I suspect that there is a problem in the software reading the inputs from only 2 AOA sensors, computers can get confused deciding which one is correct, and a third and you go with the 2 that are in agreement. (BTW Airbus uses 3 AOA’s)
No US Airlines, we test ours.
The problem with that is the amount of time they have to recognize the problem and take action -- all while the plane is pitching nose down and the pilot is pulling up frantically to correct. The Lion Air flight went down 13 minutes into the flight, and the Ethiopian flight went down in only six. Both malfunctions came on suddenly at the end of those timelines, and the pilots had very little time to react.
To make matters worse, pilots were not properly trained on how to react to this problem. Jon Weaks, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilot Association said that the pilots “were kept in the dark.” He also said “We do not like the fact that a new system was put on the aircraft and wasn’t disclosed to anyone or put in the manuals.” The move from the older 737 NG model cockpit to the new 737 Max system consisted of little more than a one-hour session on an iPad, according to Dennis Tajer, the spokesman for the APA. United Airlines, a buyer of the MAX, doesn’t even have simulators specific to the MAX model.
Training issue or not, there is something inherently wrong with this aircraft. It has a natural tendency to pitch up, due to the repositioning of the engine nacelles from the previous model. Compound that with a faulty sensor telling the MCAS that it needs to move the nose down, the pilots suddenly finds their self fighting the plane's actions. With only seconds to react -- and with panic setting in -- that one hour training on the iPad doesn't give them enough info to make a critical decision.
These planes need to be grounded all over until a definitive answer can be discovered, and proper training initiated on MAX-specific simulators. We have too many of these flying right now to take a risk otherwise.