Boeing Max 8: Elephant In The Room

The Max 8 went into service in 2016.

Southwest Airlines alone has used Max 8s for about 31,000 flights since 2016.

The Max 8s have been logging in about 7,500 flights per week worldwide, and this involves literally millions of flight hours.

During this period of normal flights, only a few pilots complained about the auto-pilot MCAS system activating inappropriately. In each case they were able to take back pilot control without incident.

Then within 6 months there are two crashes linked to the MCAS system forcing the nose down due to erroneous angle-of-attack readings.

The Elephant: If the MCAS system were such a dangerous problem, how is it possible that many 10s of thousands of flights were completed without a major incident before the 2 disasters?

The Lion Air crash could be attributed to a malfunctioning sensor that was not repaired properly, and an inability of the pilots to identify and address the specific malfunction.

This explanation, so far, would not seem to be available in the Ethiopian Air crash. The preliminary report claims the pilots used the proper procedures to disengage the MCAS, but could not regain full control.

Is there a missing piece of the puzzle? Almost any computer system can be hacked. Is it possible that some form of sabotage was involved?

None of the news reporting I have heard or read on the Max 8 and MCAS system mentions anything about this serious flaw suddenly showing up in a plane that was previously considered to be quite safe.