One issue discovered during the investigation into the Lion Air crash – which

is still ongoing – was that the angle-of-attack sensors, which detect how wind
is meeting the wings, incorrectly perceive that the plane is experiencing an
aerodynamic stall. Those sensors then automatically cause the plane to
dive. Boeing previously said Lion Air Flight 610 experienced “erroneous
input” from one of the sensors in question.
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The software upgrade will limit the operation of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation
System, or MCAS.
“Its sole function is to trim the stabilizer nose down,” according to the system’s description to
pilots, some of whom have reportedly been unaccustomed to the automated anti-stall action.
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Speculation is centering on a software program called the Maneuvering Characteristics

Augmentation System (MCAS) that Boeing built into the upgraded 737 MAX 8. Among
other functions, MCAS automatically tilts the plane's nose down when it senses the
plane is about to stall (to ensure the plane doesn't stall). This is a useful function, in
theory. Still, the consensus seems to be that the Lion Air Flight 610 crash was caused
by some combination of defective sensors (which mistakenly told the MCAS the flight
was stalling), deficient pilot training and/or airplane maintenance, and the difficulty of
overriding MCAS when it makes a mistake. And this could be what happened in the
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash as well.
Whatever the cause, the effect of two seemingly similar crashes occurring in the space
of less than six months has been global plane groundings, an FAA-mandated change to
the MCAS software, and an investigation by the U.S. Department of Transportation into
how Boeing got the 737 MAX 8 certified in the first place.