Daily Insight: Friday 21 March 2019: Safety Options and the MAX

News

It was disclosed today that some optional equipment related to safety will now be made standard on the Boeing 737MAX.  There are two safety-related “options” on the Boeing 737MAX.  The first is an angle of attack indicator, which shows the readouts from both of the aircraft’s angle of attack sensors.  The second is a disagree alert option, which lights when readings from the two sensors are not identical.

Neither of the two aircraft that crashed had those options installed, and even among US carriers, there are differences in installed equipment.   American Airlines MAX fleet has both of the options installed, while Southwest has the disagree alert option and an airline installed angle of attack indicator rather than the factory option.  United Airlines has neither of these options on its 737 MAX9 fleet.