NTSB calls on FAA to retrofit aircraft with 25 hour recording devices

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has again called on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ask that all existing aircraft be retrofitted with a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder capable of storing 25 hours’ worth of audio. Director of the NTSB’s office of aviation safety Tim LeBaron describes CVRs as “among the most valuable tools for accident investigation because they provide contemporaneous information on flight crew intentions and co-ordination as well as other factors”. However, investigators were unable to access the CVR audio of the recent Alaska Airlines door plug blowout incident as the data was overwritten, with NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy describing the missed opportunities to assess safety issues identified on recordings as “unacceptable”. Under current rules, devices are only required to store two hours worth of material. Although a FAA notice of proposed rulemaking would require newly manufactured aircraft to have 25 hour CVRs (aligning US standards with European and ICAO standards), this proposal would not apply to the existing fleet. The NTSB highlights 14 investigations have been hampered by overwritten CVR data since 2018. It also challenged the FAA’s assertion that retrofitting the existing fleet would be too expensive, stating that this would only apply to around 13,500 aircraft; less than half of the units the FAA identified in its cost/benefit analysis.