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Zaphod58
reply to post by Visitor2012
And if there is a sudden power failure between sendings? How are you going to ensure the data is sent if the aircraft explodes or breaks up suddenly?
The black box doesn't send anything to a satellite. It sends out a radio signal, which can be blocked by deep water or other factors.edit on 3/8/2014 by Zaphod58 because: (no reason given)
As others have said, in some cases there is a data stream sent to headquarters, certainly on newer aircraft. On older aircraft, not so much unless it's been upgraded. But you can even see some history of the Malaysia aircraft up until the time contact was lost, like during the last 5 minutes it continued it's climb from 30,000 to 35,000 feet:
gardener
I mean, if in this day and age officials actually wanted to know what happened to a plane right before it went down, just as thousands if not millions of homes already have internet-based security monitoring, don't control towers have a permanent ear to everything that is said in the cockpit (and perhaps everything that is seen from their view)?
Technologically it's possible of course as I'm sure you know.
Bedlam
These days, you'd think that they could send a real-time data stream back to the head shed, with all the data that's going to the black box and more. Like in-cockpit video and audio, maybe some camera feeds of the control surfaces and the like.
ANNED
Some ships have a ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter) that is released on sinking.
Why can they not build a ELT type system that has a copy of the black box recording that can be released when the plane hits the water.
this could also have a built in GPS recorder that records the impact point making it the starting point for looking for the plane its self.