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   XPost: alt.politics.liberalism   
   From: burr-head.airlines@cnn.com   
      
   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.   
      
   Boeing’s optional safety features, in part, could have helped   
   the pilots detect any erroneous readings. One of the optional   
   upgrades, the angle of attack indicator, displays the readings   
   of the two sensors. The other, called a disagree light, is   
   activated if those sensors are at odds with one another.   
      
   Boeing will soon update the MCAS software, and will also make   
   the disagree light standard on all new 737 Max planes, according   
   to a person familiar with the changes, who spoke on condition of   
   anonymity because they have not been made public. The angle of   
   attack indicator will remain an option that airlines can buy.   
      
   Neither feature was mandated by the Federal Aviation   
   Administration. All 737 Max jets have been grounded.   
      
   “They’re critical, and cost almost nothing for the airlines to   
   install,” said Bjorn Fehrm, an analyst at the aviation   
   consultancy Leeham. “Boeing charges for them because it can. But   
   they’re vital for safety.”   
      
   [After a Lion Air 737 Max crashed in October, questions about   
   the plane arose.]   
      
   Earlier this week, Dennis A. Muilenburg, Boeing’s chief   
   executive, said the company was working to make the 737 Max   
   safer.   
      
   “As part of our standard practice following any accident, we   
   examine our aircraft design and operation, and when appropriate,   
   institute product updates to further improve safety,” he said in   
   a statement.   
      
   Add-on features can be big moneymakers for plane manufacturers.   
      
   In 2013, around the time Boeing was starting to market its 737   
   Max 8, an airline would expect to spend about $800,000 to $2   
   million on various options for such a narrow-body aircraft,   
   according to a report by Jackson Square Aviation, a consultancy   
   in San Francisco. That would be about 5 percent of the plane’s   
   final price.   
      
   [The F.A.A.’s approval of the Boeing jet has come under   
   scrutiny.]   
      
   Boeing charges extra, for example, for a backup fire   
   extinguisher in the cargo hold. Past incidents have shown that a   
   single extinguishing system may not be enough to put out flames   
   that spread rapidly through the plane. Regulators in Japan   
   require airlines there to install backup fire extinguishing   
   systems, but the F.A.A. does not.   
      
   “There are so many things that should not be optional, and many   
   airlines want the cheapest airplane you can get,” said Mark H.   
   Goodrich, an aviation lawyer and former engineering test pilot.   
   “And Boeing is able to say, ‘Hey, it was available.’”   
      
   But what Boeing doesn’t say, he added, is that it has become “a   
   great profit center” for the manufacturer.   
      
   Both Boeing and its airline customers have taken pains to keep   
   these options, and prices, out of the public eye. Airlines   
   frequently redact details of the features they opt to pay for —   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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