{"id":152895,"date":"2010-01-08T04:08:13","date_gmt":"2010-01-08T09:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skyscrapercity.com\/showthread.php?t=1040659"},"modified":"2010-01-08T04:08:13","modified_gmt":"2010-01-08T09:08:13","slug":"improving-black-boxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/152895","title":{"rendered":"Improving Black Boxes"},"content":{"rendered":"
FAA Slams Jet Makers on Recorders <\/b><\/font>
\n8 January 2010
\nThe Wall Street Journal<\/p>\n

Federal aviation regulators lashed out at commercial-jet makers for resisting "any concerted effort" to upgrade onboard flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders on the latest models of their aircraft coming off assembly lines.<\/p>\n

Using unusually critical language, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was "seriously disappointed" with what it indicated was nearly two years of industry foot-dragging over implementing the mandatory upgrades.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the FAA said it was reluctantly proposing to extend the timetable for installing the enhanced recorder equipment on newly built planes after manufacturers complained they wouldn’t be able to comply with the current deadlines.<\/p>\n

The original rules, which the agency adopted in the spring of 2008, require plane makers to install more-robust recorders with independent power supplies, enhanced data-collection capabilities, more voice-recording capacity and other features, all designed to make it easier for investigators to find the probable causes of accidents and incidents.<\/p>\n

Crash investigators have been stymied over the years by power failures and the limited capabilities of many older voice and data recorders.<\/p>\n

Since the original rules were published, Boeing Co. and European manufacturer Airbus have asked the FAA to stretch out the deadlines, in some cases by an extra two years. Some of the upgrades were to have been made by April.<\/p>\n

Regional-jet makers Bombardier Inc. of Canada and Brazil’s Embraer Empresa Brasileira de Aeronaurica SA, as well as smaller business-jet and general-aviation manufacturers, have also requested what amount to extensions.<\/p>\n

The manufacturers, among other things, have argued that they can’t finish the required design work and install the upgraded systems in time to meet existing deadlines.<\/p>\n

In its latest regulatory filing, published Thursday in the Federal Register, the FAA said Boeing had argued that its widebody 777 models need extra time to comply because of their complex automation systems. A delay would allow Boeing to coordinate more closely with both U.S. and European regulations.<\/p>\n

Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., cited some of the same problems with the current deadlines. And the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group, told the FAA that "supplier and company resources necessary to make these changes have been significantly diminished by the faltering economy."<\/p>\n

The FAA, however, dismissed the industry claims as little more than sham arguments to put off the safety upgrades. The agency said the largest commercial-aircraft makers around the globe had made a decision "some time ago" not to comply, but only presented their claims much later in the process.<\/p>\n

According to the FAA’s latest document, some of the industry requests for delay use "the same justifications" and identical language. It said none of the requests indicate that manufacturers "had properly planned for regulatory compliance." The FAA contends the industry requests for delays "are not valid evidence that the industry is unable to comply, only that it has chosen not to."<\/p>\n

Boeing and Airbus both declined to comment.<\/p>\n

The FAA is now proposing to extend some deadlines until the end of this year and others until April 2012.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FAA Slams Jet Makers on Recorders 8 January 2010 The Wall Street Journal Federal aviation regulators lashed out at commercial-jet makers for resisting "any concerted effort" to upgrade onboard flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders on the latest models of their aircraft coming off assembly lines. Using unusually critical language, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}