Boeing altered key switches in 737 MAX cockpit limiting ability to shut off MCAS

In the middle of Boeing 737 cockpits, sitting between the pilot seats, are two toggle switches that can immediately shut off power to the systems that control the angle of the plane’s horizontal tail. He said if the company had maintained the switch design from the 737 NG, Boeing could have instructed pilots after the Lion Air crash last year to simply flip the “AUTO PILOT” switch to deactivate MCAS and continue flying with the normal trim buttons on the control wheel. Boeing said in a statement that the company had historically called for pilots to flip both switches to shut of a problematic or “runaway” stabilizer, so the change on the MAX ensured that the function of the switches matched that procedure.

Source: www.seattletimes.com