Crash mystery tests limits of technology
As the investigation into the crash of Air France 447 continues, French navy ships will place a receiver into the ocean to see if it can pick up any signal from the black boxes.
The search will cost millions of dollars and involve sophisticated military equipment. It also could ignite a debate about whether airplanes should be equipped with recorders that float.
The Transportation Security Administration, prodded by lawmakers for years, plans this summer to test a recorder that detaches from an airplane in a crash, agency spokeswoman Kristin Lee said.
Flying into storms to be avoided – pilots
Under most circumstances, airline pilots tend to be calm, cool, and collected. However, when asked about flying through thunderstorms, they all tend to answer the same way, “Don’t.”
Pilots tend to avoid flying into thunderstorms even though modern aircraft can withstand them.
“My personal record was a diversion of almost 300 nautical miles just to circumnavigate a large area of showers over the western Atlantic Ocean near Florida,” said Evert van Zwol, president of the Dutch pilots’ association VNV.
“You don’t go into this sort of weather lightly. It’s nasty for the passengers and can be alarming for us,” said Tim Armstrong, a former 747 captain for Singapore Airlines.
Walsh: BA in a ‘fight for survival’
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh says that “the carrier ‘is in a fight for survival‘ and cautioned that temporary solutions ‘just aren’t enough.’”
His warning follows the release of grim financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, when BA reported a record consolidated net loss of £358 million ($584.4 million).
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Re: Black boxes that float
It would seem to me that rather than trying to add something new to what is essentially old analog technology, the airlines should be looking at digital wireless. I can imagine each airline having all their planes transmitting continuous, real-time data to a central collection point. In addition to basic flight data and cockpit voice recording, the information could include latitude/longitude from the nav system so a plane would not be “missing” anymore. Of course, if the TSA is in charge of this program, look for tin cans and string.
Lyngengr–that “central collection point” would probably have to be on the plane unless it is beamed to a satellite first.
The reason I say this is because of two stories out of Brazil: the recent tragedy of the Air France flight–they were out of radar range but did have voice communications. Would that be enough to transmit to a central point? The second happened last year (I believe) when a B-737 clipped a personal jet and crashed, killing everyone on board the 737. Miraculously, the little jet managed to land and everyone on board survived. This second crash happened over a remote area of Brazil when neither plane had any contact–neither radio nor radar. It would have been hard to send data to a central point.
Also, what would happen if the plane lost electricity? The sending of data could be hampered–unless the communicator had batteries like what the black boxes have. Another thought is the weather could hamper data sending.
Going digital has potential issues too–like the hard drive being damaged by the crash or magnetic interference. I am not sure if SSD technology (like thumb/jump drives) would be better.
I am not sure how a floating black box could free itself from the wreckage; perhaps having a tethered transmitter float up from the black box would help? I am not sure.
But I do agree–keep the TSA out of it, and allow some tech firm come up with a good answer.
Tim, are you aware that Formula 1 race cars send back multiple channels of digital data to the pits? In fact, a few years ago the rules were changed to stop the engineers in the pits from changing the car performance during the race. So the technology to stream bi-directional high frequency data certainly exists. There wouldn’t need to be any on-board storage, just a microwave link to either a satellite or ground station. Remember radio waves do not travel line of sight. The planes that crashed in Brazil were not in communication with controllers, but certainly had the ability to establish radio contact. How do you think the AF flight sent back all sorts of trouble messages, including loss of electrical power and cabin pressure, even though it was not on radar or communicating with anyone? Answer – radio. Why can’t that technology be improved to take the place of the black box entirely?
As for electrical power, the on-board digital transmitter would use separate batteries, just like the tape recorders that are black boxes right now. I’m not trying to engineer this concept, just put out the suggestion that there are far better ways to relay data from moving vehicles that don’t require recovery of analog devices. If TSA was really serious about improving this technology, they would quit worrying about glueing styrofoam to the recorders and make a bold leap into the 21st century.
Lyngengr – no, I was not aware of what Formula 1 racing was doing, but thank you for filling me in.
I am not sure how to engineer it either, but the right group should work on it–which is not the TSA. Here in the USA, I think it would be the FAA, but I am not sure.