In the book "étale cohomology" by Milne, proposition 2.5 at p.9, it said :
Let $B$ be a flat $A-$algebra where $A$ and $B$ are noetherian rings, and consider $b \in B$. If the image of $b$ in $B/mB$ is not a zero-divisor for any maximal ideal $m$ of $A$, then $B/(b)$ is a flat $A-$ algebra.
At the beginning of the proof, he said we can reduce to the case where $\phi : A \rightarrow B$ is a local homomorphism of local noetherian rings. The proof in this case uses the fact that it's a local homomorphsim.
But I think that in order to reduce the general case to the local case, we need the following condition, which I can't get from the original condition.
For any maximal ideal $n$ of $B$, the image of $b$ in $B/pB$ is not a zero-divisor, where $p = \phi^{-1} (n)$.
How do you think?