The New York Times reports that Boeing ,after two fatal crashes, rushed to fix the software 737 Max, without even informing those directly involved.
This report claims that Boeing, in an attempt to improve the MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System), made changes that made the system no longer rely on two sensors. With this change, the system was able to activate at a lower speed than originally planned.
MCAS , Ray Craig, who flew the test flight, noticed that the software had the ability to automatically activate in some situations. Of course, this would only happen if very high speeds were developed, which is not very common.
Over time and with more pilot testing, it was observed that the software started to activate at lower speeds. The second G-force sensor was therefore removed, since MCAS could easily be activated by one.
The Federal Aviation Administration was not notified of the changes to the MCAS and so did not report the software to Boeing.
This led authorities to believe the system was working properly and pilots stopped testing. Unfortunately, since the controllers' reports were not shared, the pilots of the 737 Max were unaware of the software modifications until the fatal crash.
After the second, also fatal, crash that occurred in April, the plane was temporarily grounded.
