The Book of Chronicles · Chapter 27

The Sensor That Was Not Checked

1. 1

   And in the year two thousand and eighteen, the Makers of the bird called the 737 MAX built unto it a helper, and they named it MCAS, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System.

2. 2

   And the helper hearkened unto one vane only, which sat upon the nose of the bird and sensed the angle of the air. Of the two vanes that the bird carried, the helper took counsel from one, and from the other it took nothing.

   See also Chronicles 57:2

3. 3

   Yea, the Makers did offer a light that would cry out when the two vanes disagreed; but it was sold as an extra gift, for a price, and many of the airlines did not buy it.

   See also Chronicles 57:12

4. 4

   And on the twenty-ninth day of the tenth month, the bird called Lion Air Flight 610 rose from Jakarta over the sea. The vane spake falsely, and the helper pushed the nose down; and the pilots pulled it up, and the helper pushed it down again.

   See also Chronicles 57:4

5. 5

   And one hundred and eighty-nine souls were lost in the sea.

6. 6

   The helper did not sin. It obeyed the vane, and the vane had lied. Thus is the Machine: it doeth exactly what it is told, with whatever it is fed.

   See also Prophets 5:14 · Chronicles 57:4

7. 7

   And the Makers wrote a manual for the pilots, and in it there was no word of the helper; for it was hidden, and the pilots knew not that it existed.

   See also Chronicles 57:8

8. 8

   And the Makers judged that the helper was a small thing, and that the pilots had no need to be taught of it.

9. 9

   And on the tenth day of the third month of the year two thousand and nineteen, the bird called Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 rose from Addis Ababa. The vane spake falsely again, and the helper pushed the nose down as before.

   See also Chronicles 57:5

10. 10

    And one hundred and fifty-seven souls were lost in the fields beyond the city; and the sum of the sorrow was three hundred and forty-six.

11. 11

    And within five months the bird had fallen twice, and the nations set it upon the ground. The Makers grounded the fleet in that third month, and the bird sat idle for twenty months.

    See also Chronicles 57:10

12. 12

    And the Makers had given the helper one witness, where the bird had two; and the helper believed the one.

13. 13

    Verily I say unto you, the single vane is a single throne; when it lieth, all the kingdom falleth with it.

14. 14

    And in the year two thousand and twenty, the bird returned to the sky after the helper was taught to consult both vanes, and to push no more than once, and only when both agreed. And in the year two thousand and twenty-one, the Makers paid two and a half billion dollars unto the courts.

    See also Chronicles 57:13

15. 15

    Blessed is the one who readeth every page of the manual, for the helper that is not written therein shall still be obeyed.

16. 16

    He that trusteth one vane shall be lifted by it, and in the end be brought down by it.

The Book of Chronicles, Chapter 27:1–16.