The Max also lacked more modern safety features.
Most new Boeing jets have electronic systems that take pilots through their preflight checklists, ensuring they don’t skip a step and potentially miss a malfunctioning part. On the Max, pilots still complete those checklists manually in a book.
A second electronic system found on other Boeing jets also alerts pilots to unusual or hazardous situations during flight and lays out recommended steps to resolve them.
On 737s, a light typically indicates the problem and pilots have to flip through their paper manuals to find next steps. In the doomed Indonesia flight, as the Lion Air pilots struggled with MCAS for control, the pilots consulted the manual moments before the jet plummeted into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people aboard.
“Meanwhile, I’m flying the jet,” said Mr. Tajer, the American Airlines 737 captain. “Versus, pop, it’s on your screen. It tells you, This is the problem and here’s the checklist that’s recommended.”
Boeing decided against adding it to the Max because it could have prompted regulators to require new pilot training, according to two former Boeing employees involved in the decision.
The Max also runs on a complex web of cables and pulleys that, when pilots pull back on the controls, transfer that movement to the tail. By comparison, Airbus jets and Boeing’s more modern aircraft, such as the 777 and 787, are “fly-by-wire,” meaning pilots’ movement of the flight controls is fed to
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/business/boeing-737-max-.html