In the wake of Sunday’s fatal Boeing 737 MAX airplane crash in Ethiopia, President Donald Trump took computer scientists to task today for making airplanes “too complex to fly.” And the computer scientists struck back.
It all took place on Twitter, of course.
To be fair, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders extended “our prayers to the loved ones, friends and family of those killed in the tragic crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302” during Monday’s press briefing, and said the administration was offering “all possible assistance.”
But Trump didn’t exactly take a sympathetic stance in this morning’s tweets:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1105468569800839169
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1105471621672960000
The crash investigation is just getting started, and experts say it’s too early to determine whether a software glitch, hardware failure, human error, intentional sabotage or other factors are at fault. It’s true that after last October’s crash of a Boeing 737 MAX jet in Indonesia, investigators focused on an automatic flight control system as potentially playing a role. But it’s not yet clear whether there’s a connection to Sunday’s crash.
Boeing, not MIT, developed the flight control systems for the 737 MAX. But that didn’t stop MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory from jumping into the fray:
https://twitter.com/MIT_CSAIL/status/1105511312589766657
Other Twitterati took Trump to task as well. Here’s a selection:
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1105483020864237576
https://twitter.com/axios/status/1105476488080605186
https://twitter.com/honneybadger/status/1105477741086941186
https://twitter.com/MmedeSevigne/status/1105526168504225793
https://twitter.com/RybergAnnelise/status/1105520867742793734