So...WHY did it take so long for the FAA to ground the 737 Max?

[trof]

Maybe because the ACTING Administrator (An Administrator has not been appointed yet. I guess 'hard working' Donnie Two-Scoops has just been too busy to get around to it over two years in to his so-called presidency.) is a former airline lobbyist?

From wiki:
Appointed by President Donald Trump to become a FAA Deputy Administrator in June 2017, Elwell was promoted to Acting Administrator on January 7, 2018.[

Elwell was named Vice President of the Aerospace Industries Association[5] in 2008 where he stayed until 2013. Elwell was a civil aerospace manufacturer representative in this capacity where he was an advocate for various companies.[2]
Elwell joined Airlines for America (A4A) in 2013[3] where he was the Senior Vice President for Safety, Security, and Operations. Elwell left this role in 2015.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Elwell

[RockRaven]

1. Same reason for almost every decision made by the Trump admin: corrupt cronyism.

It's almost like we have a crooked POTUS who only hires other crooks.

[procon]

2. Is there more than one way to spell CORRUPTION! nt

[Sherman A1]

3. One Word

Money.

[drray23]

4. Part of it may be bigotry.

You know, these are airlines from, how did trump put it ? S...hole countries. I would not be surprised if it played a role. I've seen comments to that effect on social media already and even here where the training of these pilots was questioned. Never mind the fact that the vast majority of airline pilots come to the us to be trained on these planes.

[customerserviceguy]

6. Well

How do people get to be airline pilots?

In most countries that have an air force, people who flew military missions get preferred over people who have flown only small aircraft. I would imagine that to be different with places that do not have a functioning air force. Folks who have flown military aircraft have had experience dealing with crazy stuff that happens when things don't go by the book.

Today's aircraft are marketed as being practically able to fly themselves, when that isn't the case, if the pilot is someone who got that job by being well-connected, that person may not have the skills needed to avoid a malfunction from software-controlled flight. This might explain why tens of thousands of flights with this aircraft have been successfully executed by pilots who probably have real experience with flying all kinds of aircraft.

[trof]

7. Foriegn airlines hire a lot of pilots from other countries.

Many foreign carriers (especially Asian, Middles Eastern, and African airlines) hire pilots from the U.S., Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa (white), and Iceland.

I flew for a Japanese cargo airline and flew with all of the nationalities named.

[customerserviceguy]

8. In these two cases

it would be interesting to know the backstories of the pilots.

[trof]

9. It was reported that the co-pilot only had 200 flight hours.

That's nothing.
It sure wouldn't qualify you for right seat on any major carrier.

[customerserviceguy]

12. I was afraid of that

I would imagine that the son of a well-connected government official would have an easier time getting a pilot's job with a Third World airline than anyone would have to deal with in countries that have active air forces.

I have read about how some US pilots found the training to be inadequate, but there were hundreds of flights per day of this aircraft, so it seems that experienced pilots could handle it.

[Dave Starsky]

5. So they could sell all their Boeing stock. N/t

[Blue_Tires]

10. Yeah, it's a mess

Trump has completely erased all the respect and credibility of our institutions both domestic and international...

And Trump doing this by executive order is beyond the pale

[maxsolomon]

11. Speculation running rampant on this thread. Conspiracies everywhere!

the reason is going to be more mundane: Boeing is an American company, and demonstrating faith in them is what the American government does. until it can't.

Part 2: Boeing's "fix" for the AOA software blamed for the Lion Air crash was delayed for 5 weeks by Trump's pointless gubmint shutdown. there still hasn't been anything definitively linking this crash to the AOA software, has there?