The simple computer upgrade that could have solved the mystery

Josh Voorhees has a Slate article about typical corporate stupidity:

A simple computer upgrade that Malaysia Airlines decided not to purchase would have provided critical information to help find the airliner that disappeared eleven days ago. The upgrade would have provided investigators with the direction, speed, and altitude of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, even after other communications from the plane went dark, said a satellite industry official familiar with the equipment. Data from a similar computer upgrade allowed investigators in the 2009 crash of an Air France jet liner to quickly narrow their search area and, in five days, they found floating evidence of the crash. The new information indicates that had the upgrade for a system called Swift been installed on Flight 370, it would have continued to send flight data by satellite even after the plane’s transponder and Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) communications went dead.
Many major airlines use the full package of Swift options. The detail it provides is mandated under international aviation guidelines for airlines that ply the busy North Atlantic corridor between the United States and Europe. There are no such requirements elsewhere in the world, the industry official said. The application wholesales for about ten dollars per flight, but airlines pay a higher retail fee. Some airlines have decided they do not want to pay the higher cost for an information stream that they deem unnecessary except under the most extreme circumstances. Zainul Zawawi, area vice president for North American operations at Malaysia Airlines, said he was not authorized to speak about the missing flight and referred questions to airline officials in Malaysia. Efforts to reach those officials were not successful.
Malaysian authorities have asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation for help in recovering data that was deleted from a home flight simulator belonging to one of the pilots of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, in the hope that it will provide some clue to what happened to the plane. The expansion of the American role in the investigation came as governments struggled to narrow down the vast search zone for the plane, which stretches across two hemispheres. To speed its efforts, the FBI will probably make copies of the simulator’s hard drive and have its contents digitally relayed back to agents and analysts in the United States who specialize in retrieving deleted computer files. Unless the pilot used extremely sophisticated technology to erase files, the FBI is likely to be able to retrieve them. It was not clear whether the Malaysians have asked American law enforcement officials for help with any other parts of their inquiry."

Rico says lessee, you can not pay ten bucks a flight for the good software, or you can pay a hundred million dollars in compensation after it crashes...