COMMERCIAL passenger aircraft being operated in the USA must be retrofitted with enhanced flight-data recorders (FDRs) within four years, according to a new ruling from the US Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA rule change, which was finalised this month, was urged by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as far back as the 1980s. It was finally spurred on by unsolved fatal accidents such as the March 1991 United Airlines crash at Colorado Springs and the September 1994 USAir disaster at Pittsburgh. Both involved Boeing 737s and killed everyone on board.
The NTSB had urged that all commercial transports receive enhanced FDRs by 1997, with 1,000 early-model 737s to be equipped with new machines by 31 December, 1995.
The minimum number of channels of information on flight-performance, flight-control, systems- operation and engine-performance parameters recorded will increase from 11 to 17, or 18 for older commercial transports, and to 88 parameters for future aircraft. More than 4,300 US-registered airliners are affected. The FAA estimates that the upgrade will cost the industry about $314 million.
Source: Flight International
