Agency finally moves after sustained pressure from NTSB
After languishing for over seven years on the US National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) "most-wanted "list of aviation safety improvements, recommendations that airlines be forced to adopt more-capable flight data (FDR) and cockpit voice recorders (CVR) are set to be taken up by the US Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA wants more-advanced recorders to equip both new and in-service aircraft, including some helicopters. In a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that threatens to cost the US aviation industry $256 million if adopted, the FAA proposes to make compulsory most of the NTSB's long-standing recommendations on improvements to FDR/CVR capabilities and survivability.
The FAA makes it clear that it accepts the NTSB's arguments that it has been deprived of crucial information during major aircraft accident investigations.
The main objectives of the NPRM are to: assure the FDR and CVR power supplies after aircraft malfunctions or in the event of serious damage while airborne; improve the length of recording time over which data/audio is retained; and separate the two units where in some cases they have been combined. So that FDRs will be ready for changes in air traffic management technology when it is implemented, they will also be required to record controller/pilot datalink communications messages. The proposed rules affect manufacturers and operators of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft with more than 10 seats.
The NPRM gives industry 60 days to comment, but when the resulting airworthiness directive (AD) is issued, new-build fixed-wing aircraft will have to incorporate all the requirements within two years of publication, and most retrofits will have to be complete within four years. The US Air Transport Association says it will respond to the FAA request for comment, but has not yet had time to study the 89-page document in full.
Meanwhile the ATA says that many airlines have already fitted more capable digital FDRs and CVRs that will meet most of the new requirements for existing public transport aircraft, and that in any case it will be some years before the AD comes into force, particularly for retrofits.
The NTSB has listed eight accidents in which its investigation has been severely hampered by the poor quality, quantity or even total lack of flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder information.
DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON
Source: Flight International
