“Recent events have highlighted that recovering flight data can be costly and difficult when an accident occurs in a remote area, outside radar coverage,” the NTSB wrote in the letter on Thursday to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Malaysian Airlines flight 370 remains the most notable recent missing plane and its disappearance has driven aviation authorities worldwide to consider changes to how aircraft are tracked. The Boeing 777 is thought to have crashed in the South Indian Ocean, far from land and far from radar coverage. Search crews continue looking for it, but so far have found no wreckage or sign of the 239 people on board.
–
“The FAA will carefully review all of the NTSB’s recommendations and will send the board a formal response,” an FAA statement sent to CNN Thursday night by spokeswoman Laura Brown said. “The FAA continues to work with industry and our international partners on policy and guidance for advanced technologies that may be useful in aircraft accident investigations.”
It also noted the FAA is working on developing voluntary standards for airlines who want to install cockpit image recorders or deployable black boxes and says underwater locator beacons will be extended to 90 days by 2020.
