After searching for survivors and rescuing victims of a tragic air crash, UPS The cargo plane was searched for flight data and the cockpit voice recorder, often referred to as a “black box,” shortly after it took off from Kentucky’s Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport last month.
All commercial aircraft have them. aerospace giant ge aerospace and honeywell is one of the few companies that designs them to be nearly indestructible to help investigators determine the cause of crashes.
“It’s very important because it’s one of the few sources of information we have about what happened leading up to the accident,” said Chris Babcock, branch chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s vehicle recorder division. “We can get a lot of information from the parts and the airplane.”
Commercial aviation has become extremely complex. a boeing The 787 Dreamliner records thousands of different pieces of information. In the case of the Air India accident in June, data revealed that both engines’ fuel switches entered the cut-off position within a second of each other. Audio recordings from inside the cockpit showed the pilots discussing the cutoff.
“All of these parameters today could have a very significant impact on the investigation,” said former NTSB Commissioner John Goglia. “Our goal is to provide information to investigators on the scene as quickly as possible in order to move the investigation forward.”
This important data can also help prevent future accidents. When a crash occurs, it can cost airlines and plane manufacturers hundreds of millions of dollars and leave victims’ families with a lifetime of grief.
However, in some situations, the black box may be destroyed or never found. Experts say further developments are needed, including cockpit video recorders and real-time data streaming.
“The technology exists. Crash-proof cockpit video recorders are already installed in many helicopters and other types of airplanes, but they are not required,” said Jeff Gazzetti, an aviation analyst and former Federal Aviation Administration and NTSB accident investigator. “Cockpit video recorders have privacy and cost issues, but the NTSB has recommended that the FAA require them for years.”
Watch the video to learn more.
—CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.
