Cockpit cameras and improved locator technology are among the recommendations the NTSB put before the FAA Thursday in the wake of investigations including the crash of Air France 447 and the yet-to-be-found Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Following up on a technology forum last fall, the NTSB reiterated its idea thata “crash-protected image recording system” to capture the cockpit’s last two hours of a flight would aid investigations. The agency also wants airliners to have tamper-resistant devices that would more accurately locate an aircraft when it crashes.
“Technology has reached a point where we shouldn’t have to search hundreds of miles of ocean floor in a frantic race to find these valuable boxes,” said NTSB Acting Chairman Christopher A. Hart. “In this day and age, lost aircraft should be a thing of the past.” The Air Line Pilots Association responded with a statement, calling the recommendations a “premature overreaction … Cockpit image recorders will not improve safety and could, in fact, impede it by diverting limited resources that could be used for more valuable safety enhancements.”
Read the NTSB’s recommendations here (PDF).
