Perhaps how catastrophic this issue could be while the flight is still in low altitude during one of the busiest phases of operations?
The procedure to set the trim manually was the same, but I assume that in most flights the actual flywheel is never turned by hand (and thus rarely deactivated). I'm sure most pilots use the fly-by-wire systems or autopilot.
The procedure which was different was the automated MCAS system - pilots who have logged significant hours flying the previous model of 737 would be unprepared for this during an extremely busy phase of the flight.
Ultimately, yes, it was the pilots error when they didn't take the proper actions when the problem first occurred. Nevertheless, we must first take into account why the automated system failed to begin with, and why the pilots made the error (lack of training, sleep, preparation).
This isn't binary, and the fact Boeing is issuing a patch for the software systems as a direct result of Lion Air tells me there is more to the story than just "pilot error".
Sensors fail all the time modern aircraft, people would probably be quite scared knowing how often.
After the Airfrance airbus incident they also introduced a "patch" to protect the aircraft from erroneous pilot actions leading to stalls when indicators are incorrect, those fixes were certainly not indicative of guilt but just another layer to stop pilots making mistakes.
The procedure to set the trim manually was the same, but I assume that in most flights the actual flywheel is never turned by hand (and thus rarely deactivated). I'm sure most pilots use the fly-by-wire systems or autopilot.
The procedure which was different was the automated MCAS system - pilots who have logged significant hours flying the previous model of 737 would be unprepared for this during an extremely busy phase of the flight.
Ultimately, yes, it was the pilots error when they didn't take the proper actions when the problem first occurred. Nevertheless, we must first take into account why the automated system failed to begin with, and why the pilots made the error (lack of training, sleep, preparation).
This isn't binary, and the fact Boeing is issuing a patch for the software systems as a direct result of Lion Air tells me there is more to the story than just "pilot error".