Thank you for the question. That's a very interesting topic indeed.
A previous question touched on the voice that was heard from one of my team members, who looked very closely at that question and did quite an in-depth analysis of the pros and cons of MCAS. We had that discussion. We had that investigation. We had that conversation with the FAA.
The reality of it is that, as a validating authority, we're not in the driver's seat. We looked at the issue very closely. It was determined by the FAA, and in the end we did agree, that MCAS, strictly speaking, is required to meet strict compliance to a very specific requirement that specifies a particular control column force in a stall, in what we call a windup turn, or a banked turn, where the aircraft is experiencing some G-force. That said, that requirement in itself is quite subjective. That's where this conversation came from.
Had we been in the driver's seat, I could put 20/20 hindsight on it and say that maybe if it was Transport Canada certifying the aircraft originally, we would have not required MCAS, but I will remind you, or inform you, as the case may be, that this is a system that Boeing offered up. Based on our investigation, there was never really much of a debate that we could ascertain that went on between Boeing and FAA as to whether the system was required. Boeing offered it up to meet a specific need, to meet this column force requirement. From what we've gleaned, I guess there was never really a conversation between Boeing and FAA to really scrutinize that question as to whether MCAS was really required.
To wrap it up, in the end, I would be free to say that the length of time to fix the aircraft was related to the decision to leave MCAS on. There's no question. Had MCAS been removed...and as I explained earlier, the aircraft has been thoroughly tested by the FAA and us—and EASA, by the way—with the MCAS off, with safe flying characteristics. Nevertheless, there was this specific kind of picky requirement, if I may, that said this force had to be 50 pounds. Without MCAS, it was falling slightly short.
Technically speaking, it's required for compliance. Is it really needed for safety? Debatably, no, but again, the FAA took the design as presented from Boeing. They accepted that was to be evaluated. Again, their job is to evaluate what is presented to them. I won't say that the process to reach return to service was not simplified by MCAS being left on. A lot of the work was to fix the system, to work around some of the not desirable features, shall I say, that MCAS brought to the airplane. That's why it took so long.