Boeing charges extra to remove this passenger option.
Posted on 03/21/2019 7:00:42 AM PDT by centurion316
As the pilots of the doomed Boeing jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia fought to control their planes, they lacked two notable safety features in their cockpits.
One reason: Boeing charged extra for them.
For Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers, the practice of charging to upgrade a standard plane can be lucrative. Top airlines around the world must pay handsomely to have the jets they order fitted with customized add-ons.
Sometimes these optional features involve aesthetics or comfort, like premium seating, fancy lighting or extra bathrooms. But other features involve communication, navigation or safety systems, and are more fundamental to the plane’s operations.
Many airlines, especially low-cost carriers like Indonesia’s Lion Air, have opted not to buy them — and regulators don’t require them.
Now, in the wake of the two deadly crashes involving the same jet model, Boeing will make one of those safety features standard as part of a fix to get the planes in the air again.
It is not yet known what caused the crashes of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10 and Lion Air Flight 610 five months earlier, both after erratic takeoffs. But investigators are looking at whether a new software system added to avoid stalls in Boeing’s 737 Max series may have been partly to blame. Faulty data from sensors on the Lion Air plane may have caused the system, known as MCAS, to malfunction, authorities investigating that crash suspect.
That software system takes readings from two vanelike devices called angle of attack sensors that determine how much the plane’s nose is pointing up or down relative to oncoming air. When MCAS detects that the plane is pointing up at a dangerous angle, it can automatically push down the nose of the plane in an effort to prevent the plane from stalling.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
MCAS functions
AOA Sensors
Crew Training
Crew Manuals
Crew Experience
Airline Maintenance
Airline cost decisions
It may be that the combination of several errors and practices led to two very deadly crashes.
It’s truly horrific to imagine them frantically going through the user manual as the plane was going down.
Safety should not be optional.
“Safety should not be optional.”
Everything but death and taxes are optional.
L
Seatbelts installed in cars only became mandatory in 1968....
It’s still not federally mandated in school buses.
Can Boeing and the 737 Max 8 survive the horrible publicity? I’m not sure. Who wants to fly in one now, even if Boeing claims to have fixed the problem? And, also, what airline would want to buy one?
It is said the “Airworthiness Certification’s are written in blood”
The very first passenger was killed in a crash in D.C. while flying with one of the Wright Bros.in a demo for the Army
With few exceptions, transport-class airplane crashes don't have one and only one cause. The crash is caused by an error cascade -- a combination of several errors and practices that lead to deadly crashes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ts_AjU89Qk&index=2&t=0s&list=UUphqjYZxxzjNbONVmY-0J7Q
This is the best analysis on the web. Everyone interested in this topic should go here.
Boeing charges extra to remove this passenger option.
Typically a crash is the result of a chain of about seven events, none of which are sufficient by themselves to cause a loss of the aircraft. Break that chain at any step and everybody goes home at the end of the day.
Huh. That’s seven events...
Agree wholeheartedly. Watched it earlier this morning. This guy does what the press has been unable to do, provide a clear and accurate account. Of course, his video is missing all of those BS high production values.
Sorry but the “Keeps It From Crashing” feature was an additional $15.
I was driving a jeep on our farms by 1960. (was about 13 then) It was a 1947 Willys, no seat belts and no top.
First car I drove with a seat belt was in built in 1964.
I traveled for a living (outside sales and support) for over 2 million road miles. Never had a moving accident. Had a wife of a state representative in NM drive into my new car and leave the scene. Gas station employee put tag number and note on my windshield. She was driving her husbands State Representative tagged car. They paid the claim for damages when confronted.
So, how important are seat belts? I think it depends upon the accident. In most case, not that important.
In an aircraft an equipment failure is serious. It is also serious with the fools who believe it is practical for a car to drive itself.
I absolutely do not even trust the navigation system to direct me to a destination, much less to drive the car.
My 3 year old Explorer has a very bad navigation sytstem and they just contacted me to spend $150 to upgrade it. I decided not to. WAYZ in a cell phone is much much better.
Far too much complexity, and driving cars, trains and planes will be done by humans for a long time to come.
Yeah. Every improvement is paid for in blood. I said exactly that to my son yesterday.
This is why we have an NTSB, and so many other countries have their own equivalents, that no blood be spilled in vain.
Seatbelts, mandatory, 1968. True. But it was 1984 before any state made it mandatory that you had to wear them (NY).
It has not been proven yet that the crashes were caused by the nav system.
Pilots should fly planes, not nav systems.
That’s uncanny isn’t it. But, the people who investigate accidents for a living know this and have the data to back it up.
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