Flight Data Recorders, Decades Out of Date

Tisha_AH writes "For the past fifty years the technology behind aircraft flight data recorders has remained stagnant. Some of the advances of cloud computing, mesh radio networks, real-time position reporting and satellite communications are held back by a combination of aircraft manufacturers, pilots unions and the slow gears of government bureaucracy. Many recent aircraft loss incidents remain unexplained, with black boxes lost on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, buried under the wreckage of the World Trade Centers or with critical information suppressed by government secrecy or aircraft manufacturers. Many devices still rely upon tape recorders for voice and data that only record a very small sampling of aircraft dynamics, flight and engine systems or crew behaviors. Technologically simple solutions like battery backup, continual telemetry feeds by satellite and hundreds of I/O points, monitoring many systems should be within easy reach. Pilot unions have objected to the collection and sharing of detailed accident data, citing privacy concerns of the flight crew. Accidents may be due to human error, process problems or design flaws. Unless we can fully evaluate all factors involved in transportation accidents, it will be difficult to improve the safety record. Recommendations by the NTSB to the FAA have gone unheeded for many years. With all of the technological advancements that we work with in the IT field, what sort of best practices could be brought forward in transit safety?"

Comments

Re:tape isn't bad

[sexconker]

Flash is better at all of those things than tape except electrical shock, and you can isolate the module with optical signals and power via induction (with its own fairly complex power supply in there on the other end, thus handling surges) or via optical power, which is horribly inefficient but who cares? It doesn't take much power to write flash, and turbines can be designed to produce basically any amount of electrical power you like.

You're an idiot.
Go crash a plane with a flash drive and a tape drive, then see which has more recoverable data.

Re:Welcome to Drudge-dot!

[damn_registrars]

http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB124201244946205809.html

Colgan Air Inc., which operated the [crashed] flight where 50 people died], is proposing to download and analyze random cockpit recordings in the future as a means of enhancing safety and enforcing cockpit discipline. The union representing Colgan's roughly 480 pilots is dead set against it.

So you took an article in a conservative newspaper, where the author (surprise!) criticized the union and you accepted it at face value. If I showed you an article from the Washington Post that blamed our entire economic situation personally on George W Bush would you accept that too?

Although perhaps just as significant of a misstep in your assumption is taking the statement of "the union representing Colgan's roughly 480 pilots" at face value. You do realize that the Airline Pilots Association represents most of the carriers in the US and Canada, right? The matters they concern themselves with go far beyond just Colgan air. And for that matter, neither you nor your article came up with anything to support ALPA being anti-safety as you claim.

If you keep searching, you'll only find more of the same.

Unless, of course, you actually read what the union is saying, which is quite a bit different than what the "main stream media" keeps telling us is coming out of the union.

Pilots Unions endlessly fight tooth and nail against anything that would impinge upon the cockpit.

Wrong, but thanks for playing.

Re:Welcome to Drudge-dot!

[damn_registrars]

Although perhaps just as significant of a misstep in your assumption is taking the statement of "the union representing Colgan's roughly 480 pilots" at face value. You do realize that the Airline Pilots Association represents most of the carriers in the US and Canada, right?

Nothing you've said or linked supports your position that unions aren't fighting against advances in flight data recorders. In particular, the one Union press release you linked doesn't even discuss the issues at hand.

That's because people are erroneously making that assumption when they are not taking that position.

Here's a winner I found from 2004 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0UBT/is_30_18/ai_n6281128/

So you are taking an interview of one pilot, from 6 years ago, and trying to extrapolate that to cover the opinions of an entire staff of pilots, today?