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Essay / The need for black box modernization
It is evident that in the aviation sector, changes are usually only made after a major crisis. For decades, accident investigators have used black boxes to gather relevant information about airplane accidents and incidents. For example, black boxes such as flight data recorders (FDR) and cockpit voice recorders (CVR) have proven useful 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 aircraft's direction, speed, and altitude, while CVRs record the last two hours of cockpit audio (Kearns, 20118). Given the circumstances, in many situations flight data recorders have proven capable of resolving the "why" and "how" it happened, but only when the equipment is recovered. And if the box is not recovered, the “why” and “how” can turn into speculation. With this in mind, I believe the current black box technology used on commercial aircraft is underdeveloped and in need of a major update. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get an original essayIn my opinion, one of the main drawbacks of current black box technology is its inability to transmit flight data in time real, especially when it comes to oceanic ones. routes. Flights have disappeared because current technology lags behind and doesn't allow planes to send their locations consistently or accurately. For example, it took two years to recover the black boxes from Air France Flight 447 and the black boxes from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have still not been recovered. If the flight recorders contained GPS technology at the time of these crashes, information regarding Flights 447 and 370 would have been transmitted to a remote location or cloud server, where investigators could begin looking into the situation immediately. If the refusal of this technology is because airliners and manufacturers refuse to foot the bill, then the FAA should issue an airworthiness directive requiring them to do so, otherwise their fleet will be grounded. Although equipping planes with this technology does not prevent accidents and incidents, it allows workers to respond more quickly to uncover the hidden truths about what happened. And it gives travelers peace of mind knowing that in the event of an accident, they will be located within minutes. From my personal point of view, it is completely unacceptable for an airliner to disappear without a trace.