The Need for Black Box Modernization

It is evident that in the aviation sector changes are typically made only after a major crisis occurs. For decades, accident investigators have used black boxes to gather pertinent information pertaining to aircraft accidents and incidents. For instance, black boxes such as flight data recorders (FDRs) and cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) have proven to be beneficial because they allow investigators to uncover the root cause of an accident. FDRs can store up to twenty-five hours of data such as an airplane’s direction, speed, and altitude while CVRs record the last two hours of audio in the cockpit (Kearns, 20118). Given the circumstances in many situations flight data recorders have proven to solve the ‘why’ and ‘how’ did this occur, but only when the equipment is recovered. And if the box is not recovered then the ‘why’ and ‘how’ can turn into speculation. With this in mind, I believe that current black box technology used on commercial aircraft is underdeveloped and in need of a major update.

In my opinion one of the major drawbacks with current black box technology is its inability to transmit real-time flight data especially when it comes to oceanic routes. Flights have gone missing because the current technology is lagging and does not let airplanes send their location consistently or precisely. For example, it took two years to recover the black boxes from Air France Flight 447 and black boxes from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have yet to be recovered. If flight recorders contained GPS technology during the time of these accidents, then information concerning flights 447 and 370 would have been transmitted to a remote location or a cloud server, where investigators could begin examining the situation immediately. If the refusal for this technology is because airliners and manufactures refuse to foot the bill then the FAA should step in an issue an airworthiness directive mandating that they do so or their fleet will be grounded.

Although equipping airplanes with this technology does not prevent accidents and incidents from occurring, it does allow workers to react faster to uncover the hidden truths as to what has occurred. And it allows travelers to have peace of mind knowing that in the event of an accident they will be located in a matter of minutes. From my personal standpoint, it is completely unacceptable for an airliner to disappear without a trace.