This is a straightforward look at the anti-stall safety system aboard Boeing’s 737 Max 8 commercial aircraft. This ran March 14, 2019, as part of our coverage of the Ethiopian Airline crash in which 157 people died.

The Max 8 jet was the same as Indonesia’s Lion Air Flight 610, which crashed Oct. 29, 2018. All 189 passengers and crew were killed.

We used text and images to describe the Max 8’s MCAS — Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System — which is designed to stabilize the aircraft in flight.

It took time to find an aeronautical source that would go on record with me about the system. Boeing declined, citing the federal investigation. Component manufacturers and even some universities did not want to weigh in.

I finally found the aviation people at the Florida Institute of Technology, who were quite helpful.

A link to the explainer is here.