WSJ: Boeing Turned Off Malfunction Alerts On 737 Max — And Didn’t Tell Airlines Or FAA
Hot Air,
by
Ed Morrissey
Original Article
Posted By: ladydawgfan,
4/30/2019 2:33:53 PM
Just when did the airlines know that they had to pay extra for a key warning system on the Boeing 737 Max? The Wall Street Journal reported last night that it wasn’t at the point of sale. Until a crash in Ethiopia last October, Southwest Airlines thought the system came standard with the platform — so much so that their operating manuals included them. Somehow, the news that the safety feature was an upgrade didn’t get mentioned to the FAA, either:
Reply 1 - Posted by:
rochow 4/30/2019 2:56:38 PM (No. 73155)
Lots of law suits to commence. You might want to consider another stock. This one will definitely take a dive!
17 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Rubinski 4/30/2019 2:57:35 PM (No. 73162)
Uh-oh.
15 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
slab 4/30/2019 3:01:11 PM (No. 73154)
No worries, Boeing has almost direct access to the US Treasury, so I think I know who will ultimately pay the damages, one way or another.
17 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Wetenschapper 4/30/2019 3:02:24 PM (No. 73151)
Not unlike the IBM AT. IBM made two models, one of which ran its 80286 chip a couple KHz faster than the other and cost a couple thousand more. The only difference between the two was a clock chip that cost about five bucks. Users discovered this, and started soldering faster clock chips in.
IBM´s response was to jigger the BIOS so that if it detected that the clock wasn´t running at the "right" speed, it would refuse to boot.
12 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
klezmer 4/30/2019 3:27:35 PM (No. 73156)
#4, I remember an upgrade to an IBM dot matrix printer that doubled the speed - for only $1,500. It required a service call and the technician would take the cover off and move the belt drive to the 2nd set of pulleys.
17 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 4/30/2019 3:55:54 PM (No. 73153)
Its called a price feature. Lol.
10 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Turninggrey 4/30/2019 3:57:25 PM (No. 73157)
This is actually pretty bad.
11 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
DVC 4/30/2019 5:16:02 PM (No. 73160)
I´d like to hear the other side of this. There are LOTS of pressure to keep prices down, and the way to do that is to not include various features which cost extra.
At some point, the buyer is also responsible for reading the specifications of what the vehicle they bought has installed.
So, if you buy a car, and don´t bother to notice that this particular model does NOT have antiskid braking, and you ASSUME it does, because your last car from that manufacturer had antiskid brakes, so they MUST "all have it", is that a criminal act by the car dealer or car maker? Or an uninformed, inattentive buyer not noticing that something that they wanted is NOT on the spec list?
Do you carefully read the long list of optional features on your new car´s window, before you buy? I do.
I think perhaps SW Airlines purchasing people should have read the specs, too.
11 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Mike22 4/30/2019 5:46:30 PM (No. 73158)
Please read the story. It appears that when Southwest created their 737 MAX manual the feature was on. Later it was turned off by Boeing.
It appears that after the customer and the regulating agency were told the feature was present it was removed by the manufacturer and the change was not communicated.
It also appears that the FAA should have been more aggressive in either communicating to the air carriers that it had been turned off and the resulting threat or grounded the plane until the situation was addressed.
Hard to blame Southwest or the other carriers if Boeing specs included the feature and then Boeing deactivated the feature without notifying them.
From the articles on the failure it appears that at minimum every plane should have had a sticker that said:
"The MCAS system on this plane occasionally, without warning, goes into a mode where it will try to dive the plane nose down to AGL 0 and it will fight with you when you try to prevent it."
10 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Smart11344 4/30/2019 6:15:33 PM (No. 73159)
I am stunned that Boeing, a leader for many decades in the airline building business would even consider making their planes less safe. Who were the corporate idiots who thought saving a few bucks and endangering their passengers and crew is beyond outrageous.
14 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Mushroom 4/30/2019 8:23:35 PM (No. 73163)
Oddly enough this sounds exactly like Motorola´s business model when software controlled radios appeared. Every feature was built in, flipping a software switch was all that was required to enable it, for a fee. Considering the crippling of Chicago based Motorola and the current debacle at Boing´s International Headquarters in Chicago, I suspect there may be a bit of bleedover involved.
7 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
plomke 4/30/2019 8:24:14 PM (No. 73164)
What did Mitch McConnell know and when did he know it?
His Chinese inlaws are gonna make a fortune re-writing that software...
6 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
red1066 4/30/2019 8:47:16 PM (No. 73150)
This decision came straight from the top. I´m sure there were internal people who were dead set against this, but were over ruled and possibly threatened with the loss of their jobs. How anyone in charge can do this and still live with themselves and with the possible actions affecting thousands of jobs of workers and their families is beyond me. Just plain greed.
8 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Johann 4/30/2019 10:30:09 PM (No. 73161)
It is sickening. How could an important feature like this malfunction alert become an extra to be paid for? Boeing must pay heavily for this idiocy.
6 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
pensom2 4/30/2019 11:19:31 PM (No. 73149)
Oh, Boeing will pay heavily for this idiocy. This was a multi-$billion oversight. Lawsuits and lost sales galore.
8 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
TXknitter 5/1/2019 2:27:22 AM (No. 73152)
I know, #10, but the company is now so left-leaning that it affects everything.
6 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
DVC 5/1/2019 2:36:08 AM (No. 73148)
Always remember that the leftist Enemedia ALWAYS want you to hate all businessmen, and they always slant the news.
I NEVER take Enemedia accounts at face value, NEVER. Don´t be gullible.
3 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
MickTurn 5/1/2019 1:08:02 PM (No. 73147)
Boeing is SO screwed!!!!!!
8 people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "ladydawgfan"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Comments:
From the comments after the article: " How the @#*&% is this vital safety feature EVER "optional"?!
It´s like buying a new BMW and, after driving it off the lot, finding out that the brakes were included in an option package that you didn´t buy."