YARS said:
> I can’t endorse real-time surveillance of every flight in the skies.
We already have it, it is called ADS-B. It has already provided lots of information about this flight (yes, it was ADS-B equipped) that would have otherwise been unavailable before. That is, second by second position, direction, speed. This will be instrumental in the final accident analysis.
ADS-B will revolutionize accident investigation (by providing detailed flight path data and even details such as autopilot selections and settings) and search and rescue operations (by providing bread crumbs to the accident site). ELTs are worthless and the FAA should eliminate the requirement to carry one if you have 1090ES ADS-B equipment.
As for TAWS, that is a red herring. The rapid roll over and descent was not due to unawareness of terrain, but due most likely to spatial disorientation in cloud. TAWS doesn’t change that. TAWS also doesn’t work in many cases. Read about Flying Tiger Line 66, the pilot flew calmly right into a mountain with the TAWS yelling at them.
As for CVR/FDR, they don’t prevents a crash, and they won’t add a lot for a spatial disorientation event like this one seems to be. The FAA makes the standards for CVR/FDR so high and so costly that everybody fights having them. So their own rules make it LESS safe because they won’t accept a lesser standard for the devices. Indeed, the NTSB often gets FAR better data from consumer devices like the iPad or portable GPS units than they do from certified expensive black boxes. The FAA is sometimes negative safety and this is such a case.
Mike C.