Aircraft authorities look to upgrade black box tracking

World Today

Black box, an aircraft gadget that includes data and recordings revealing the reasons behind a plane crash, has been the topic of many conversations among the EgyptAir investigators, families of the passengers on board and aircraft engineers.

Black boxes, actually orange to increase visibility, are often difficult to find, especially when a plane goes down in water.

But experts and authorities are trying to make new aircraft rules to improve the tracking data reception. By the year 2021, aircraft must autonomously transmit tracking data in the event of an emergency, flight data recorders must be easier to quickly recover and voice recorders must capture 25 hours of cockpit conversation instead of the current two hour requirement.

Yet how airlines will meet those goals is still up in the air.

CCTV America’s Jim Spellman reports.

One possibility is real time transmission of flight data, but airlines have resisted this option, because it will be very difficult to manage full-time streaming data from all flights every day and all the time.

Another possibility is the use of “Deployable Black Boxes,” floating recorders that are automatically ejected from the aircraft before a crash, making them much easier to find. This technology is already used in some military aircraft, but it would be expensive and difficult to retrofit today’s aircraft with this technology. Some airlines also fear accidental deployments.


Mike Boyd on black box technology

CCTV America’s Nathan King spoke to Mike Boyd, aviation security analyst, about some possible ways to improve aircraft black box technology.