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When Boeing began delivering its 737 Max to customers in 2017, the company was convinced that the cockpit warning light was a standard feature of all new jet aircraft.
But a few months after the aircraft was stolen, the company's engineers realized that the indicator light was only working on aircraft whose customers had purchased a different optional indicator.
Essentially, this meant that a safety feature that Boeing considered standard was actually a premium supplement.
Boeing explained his initial confusion about the alarm light in a statement released on Sunday, adding new details to what we already knew about the defective design and the introduction of the 737 Max, its most sold airliner.
The initial lack of knowledge about the features of the feature, as well as late publication, add to Boeing's concern about Max's design management. The revelations add to Boeing's growing problems, which include degraded relationships with airlines and customers, multiple federal investigations, rising financial costs and the work yet to be done to fly the Max again.
The indicator warns the drivers of a clash in the sensors that measure the direction of the plane, potential sign of a malfunction. This light could have provided crucial information to pilots of two flights that crashed shortly after takeoff in recent months.
In the two doomed flights – the 610 Lion Air flights and 302 Ethiopian Airlines – preliminary investigations suggest that these so-called angle attack sensors were causing early problems in the flights, thus activating a new anti-stall software that sent planes into an irreparable situation – dives.
But the disagreement alert only worked on planes equipped with an optional indicator displaying sensor readings, Boeing said Sunday.
Since only 20% of customers had purchased the optional indicator, the warning light did not work on most new Boeing jet aircraft. Neither Lion Air nor Ethiopian had the indicator.
After discovering the failure in 2017, Boeing conducted an internal review and determined that the absence of warning light in working condition "did not have a negative impact on the safety or the operation of the aircraft, "he said in a statement.
As a result, Boeing stated that he had not informed the airlines or the Federal Aviation Administration of this error for a year.
It was only after the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 last October that Boeing discussed the issue with the FA. The company then conducted another review and again found that the missed alert did not pose a security threat, and she informed the FDA. much.
Boeing and the F.A.A. at the end of last year published public updates describing the warning light as only available if the optional indicator had also been purchased.
But none of these statements made it clear that Boeing had intended the alert for disagreement to be the norm in all aircraft.
F.A.A. said Sunday that Boeing had informed her of the confusion in November, saying the issue was "low risk".
"However, timely or early communication between Boeing and the operators would have helped to reduce or eliminate any possible confusion," said F.A.A. I said.
The anti-stall system, created to compensate for Max's new large engines, will push the nose of the aircraft if the angle of attack sensors indicate that the aircraft is dangerously close to stalling.
But the system relied on only one of the two angle of attack sensors, introducing a single potential point of failure in a critical flight system. And the anti-stall system was also modified late in the design process to make it much more powerful.
Airlines and pilots were not informed of the system before the Lion Air crash.
When Boeing explained to the pilots at a meeting how the systems worked on the Max, the company said the dispute alert would work in the field. At the end of the November meeting, Boeing told American Airlines pilots (who had bought the extension) that their warning of disagreement would have warned them of problems before takeoff.
"We were told that if A.O.A. As in Lion Air, the difference was huge, we would get an alert on the ground and would not even take off, "said Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the union representing American Airlines pilots. "It gave us extra confidence to continue flying this plane."
But in recent weeks, Boeing has said something different. Tajer said the company had recently told US pilots that the system would warn pilots of any disagreement on the sensors before the plane was 400 feet above the ground.
A spokesman for Boeing confirmed, pointing out that the disagreement alert did not work on the ground and therefore could not have alerted Lion Air pilots of a defective sensor before takeoff.
Mr. Tajer stated that Boeing appeared to have "provided inaccurate information" and that the pilots had sought clarification from the company.
Mr. Tajer, who is also a 737 pilot, said he was concerned that Boeing did not seem to fully understand how each aspect of the Max worked.
"You'd better get to know things about the aircraft you build and sell, because my life and the passengers I carry safely around the world depend on it," said Tajer.
The Lion Air crash also prompted Boeing to inform the Southwest pilots of the light of disagreement. "We thought it worked," said Jon Weaks, president of the Southwest Pilots' Association. "If they knew it in 2017, why did we come to the end of 2018 until the manual was changed?"
In the months following the crash of Lion Air, Boeing quietly worked to appease some customers, according to an informed person. In several cases, he activated the angle indicator of attack for free, which then activated the disagreement alert.
The 737 Max has been immobilized for more than a month after the crash of Ethiopian Airlines. Boeing is working on a software patch that it plans to submit to F.A.A. soon, in the hope that the Max can fly again later this summer. The update will make the anti-stall system less powerful and less dependent on both sensors.
Boeing is also developing a separate software update that will dissolve the deterrent alert angle indicators, which will also be installed before the Max can fly again.
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