The black box recorders from EgyptAir MS804 are still being sought two weeks after it disappeared over the Mediterranean enroute from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board. The intense search is the latest example of the difficulties investigators face in locating the devices.
Aircraft tracking has been a high priority since Malaysia Airlines MH370 disappeared over water in 2014. The United Nation’s aviation agency ICAO said in March that new aircraft needed to be equipped by 2021 with improved means of having their black boxes or data from them recovered in a timely manner.
Airlines and plane manufacturers are exploring ways to meet that goal, including ejectable recorders or other technology such as new homing methods or data streaming. Ejectable or “deployable” recorders would separate from the tail during a crash and then float while emitting a distress signal.
A data streaming system would create huge amounts of data for all aircraft.
Gilberto Lopez Meyer, senior vice president for safety and flight operations at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said on Thursday the organization would by the end of 2016 state its view on which of the possible techniques would be best.
“I believe that by the end of this year we should have a concrete and definite position on this issue,” he told reporters at the organization’s annual meeting in Dublin. “IATA is in discussions. Every single option has pros and cons.”
Airbus Group SE said last year that it was talking to regulators about adding deployable devices to its two largest models of jets. Boeing Co has expressed scepticism, citing instances in which they have failed on warplanes.
Deployable devices have been used on military planes for decades.
Under standards brought in by ICAO, aircraft will by 2018 have to carry devices that can transmit their location at least once a minute in cases of distress.
– Reuters