This is the latest article, again from the New York Times, to make me very concerned over what is happening to Boeing which led to this issue and these two crashes.

There had also been a nagging concern in my mind ever since the issue of the software control came up:
As I understand it, the software control was an additional piece of hardware AND software, with an additional set of switches to turn off the system which the pilots in the crashes did not know about. Apparently the day before
the earlier crash (in Indonesia), the jet had had the same exact problem but a pilot in the jump seat had been aware of it and rescued the plane and pilots. The next day, none of those pilots were in the same plane when the same problem led to its destruction.

The problem is twofold: The extra control system with the lack of training and documentation, and the lack of reporting on the part of the folks who had a major control problem. Did they not pass this on to their mates?

It reminds me of driving across borders in the U.S. Northeast in winter. If the snow removal trucks only cleared the road on their side of the border (I'm thinking Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts here), you could lose control of your vehicle on the bit in the middle that they mutually felt no responsibility for. If they bothered to clear the middle border part, there was no problem.