Your plane is ready for boarding. Safety is optional.
How can it be that, in 2019, critical airplane safety features could be considered optional—or worse, be available only at a steep extra cost?
How can it be that, in 2019, critical airplane safety features could be considered optional—or worse, be available only at a steep extra cost?
In March, The New York Times revealed that some Boeing 737 Max 8 planes—two of which were recently involved in devastating crashes—lack a safety feature that may have warned pilots about problems because it was not required, and Boeing charged airlines extra to include it.
“Safety should never be optional, let alone monetized for additional profit,” said PIRG Consumer Watchdog Adam Garber. “A simple additional sensor could have warned pilots that a malfunctioning system threatened the safety of their passengers and also let Boeing know about serious problems… sooner.”
U.S. PIRG and our national network called on the Federal Aviation Administration to tell Boeing and other plane manufacturers to retrofit jets with this technology, and mandate “optional” safety features going forward.
Photo Credit: Altair78 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0