Boeing air crashes may have been caused by lack of safety features sold as optional extras

[Agema]

Now even if it turns out this had nothing to do with the crashes, the fact they were trying to make an extra buck off of basic safety features is pretty f***ing despicable.

Although from what I understand, profit drive occurred earlier to kickstart this.

Apparently rivals Airbus worked hard on a new plane in the same role increased fuel economy, which proved very popular and Boeing were worried about the loss of market share. They rapidly make a quick fix redesign on the 737 to make it more fuel efficient, however the redesign caused a problem with its stability, which the offending software was created to compensate for.

All a real mess, really.

 

[sneakypenguin]

which is a memory item.

Is that just pilot-speak for 'something they should have remembered'?

Yeah memory items or "immediate action items" are stuff you have to have memorized because you don't have time to run a QRH(quick reference handbook) Stuff like "engine fire on ground" or trim runaway have steps associated with them. THeres not a lot of them usually 5-10 per aircraft.

snip

Are you just assuming that overriding the trim by re-trimming is sufficient because it is in other cases, or are you specifically familiar with how MCAS works in this regard?



snip

Hitting the trim will cut out mcas temporarily (5 seconds) so not a permanent thing but it will allow you to control the aircraft indefinitely. Same for flaps and autopilot. Reading on the BBC today they started experiencing difficulty at around 500ft agl.(flap retraction altitude is 99% of the time 1000agl or higher(i don't think a 737 would even be fast enough at 500 to get ride of the last bit of flaps) They should have still had the flaps in at that point. So idk if they messed up or something else was going on.

To stop, or reverse, the MCAS you can hit the trim, activate the autopilot, put flaps in, physically stop the trim wheel. Now all those are temporary only working as long as your doing them, but that should give you time to run the memory item and hit the cutout switches next to the trim.




EDIT also yeah idk what boeing was thinking with the continued activation of MCAS one or two 10 second cycles would do the job without over powering elevator command. But If airbus survived all their automation shenanigans boeing should be fine. Maybe they'll stop trying to make the 737 into a 757 lol.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Or, y'know, don't be a cheap airline and secure your investments so your plane won't crash after it takes off.

The responsibility goes on both.