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Pilots secretly recorded Boeing
The secret recording
The head of the pilots union was upset that Boeing had put the MCAS software in the plane without telling the pilots. Boeing came for a sit-down, and the union secretly recorded what Boeing said and gave it to the press. When the union did not respond to Boeing's request, it issued FOIA requests against Boeing, which is unheard of.
Others push
Others pushed too. Dominic Gates had followed Boeing for The Seattle Times for sixteen years and won a Pulitzer for his work on the crashes. Peter Robison wrote a book called Flying Blind, and fifty-seven whistleblowers sent letters to the Senate. The victims' families showed up again and again and pressured Congress to make sure something happened.
Government inquiries
The government investigated on several fronts: a Senate commission, a House commission, and the Department of Justice. KNKT, the Indonesian agency with the right to inspect the black boxes, could tell very quickly that the pilot was fighting the autopilot. Both congressional committees were decidedly bipartisan.
How do investigators read a plane's black boxes?
A black box is really two recorders, both painted bright orange. The flight data recorder logs hundreds of parameters, from airspeed and altitude to control surface positions, while the cockpit voice recorder captures sound in the cockpit. Lined up on a timeline, the data can show what the pilots commanded and how the aircraft responded. Both are built to survive impact and fire.
Why does the crash country lead the inquiry?
Under Annex 13 of the Chicago Convention, administered by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the country where an accident happens leads the investigation. The country that designed and built the aircraft, here the United States, takes part as an accredited representative. Indonesia's KNKT held the lead role after the October 2018 crash of a Lion Air 737 MAX into the Java Sea.
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