Cockpit voice recorders in US airliners are to be upgraded to provide more useful data in future air accident investigations.
The Federal Aviation Administration said on 24 February that it is preparing to order airlines to fit back-up batteries to these “black boxes” so that they can operate for at least 10 minutes without power from the aircraft’s electrical system. During normal operations, the recorders will have to store 2 hours of data, rather than 30 minutes as now.
The move follows recommendations from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which had trouble discovering what caused Swissair flight 111 to crash off Nova Scotia, Canada, in September 1998. Six minutes before the crash, which killed 229 people, the crew tried to isolate an electrical fire by switching off a circuit that also powered the black box.
After the accident, New Scientist called for black boxes to be powered independently (17 October 1998, p 48). The FAA wants the upgraded recorders to be fitted to new planes by 2008, and to existing planes by 2010.