Another hot topic Air Asia jet that just crashed recently.

[05caddyext]

Why is it so important to find the black boxes? I don't understand why any/all of the information on them isn't being transmitted to an off-plane recording device. It's 2015, the technology has to exist right? The black box should not be the end-all-be-all important thing to find. They say without it, it's nearly impossible to tell for sure what actually happened. That seems ridiculous to me. Thoughts?

[Yooformula]

While I agree I also think that with how many planes are flying at any given time, thats alot of info to stream and store constantly. Not to mention not all areas that the planes travel are linked together so who would do the actual collecting of the info. I dont understand why the industry isnt using a full linked tracking system for the planes so that between all of the towers, every planes can be tracked at any time by any tower.

[animal]

I'm sure we could get such a thing working if you could get all of the governments of the world to work together like they do on all the other issues of the world.

[Prince Valiant]

I think you'll see it eventually. Part of the problem right now is that can you *constantly* stream the data? Right now they do have planes (777, 787, 747-8) that blip data and trouble codes intermittently to satellites that communicate information to maintenance ground crews so parts and manpower can be ready to go as soon as the plane lands at an airport...but it doesn't stream it.

So the black boxes (2, flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder) are still important...for if a problem develops and a crash results near instantly, all in b/w data-blips, then the crucial information is lost. In the future you may see a system that streams when it can, but still uses recorders for gaps in streaming, and recording data that as streamed can't be sent, ie impact forces, since the plane obviously disintegrated on impact.

Likewise, the recorders are helpful since they are also beacons helping us find the wreckage. But as it is right now, black-boxes ARE crucial...just watch AE's "Air Crash Investigations" episodes to see how crucial the info is that they get from the black-boxes.

As far as all commercial planes getting it, you won't see that. Hell, many older russian jets are still flying with old style black boxes that record on copper foil with moving stylii. Newest planes will get them, perhaps in wealthy countries other planes will be retrofitted with more modern data sending black boxes, etc.

[Moparjim]

We can fly drones with full video and attack targets in Afghanistan from bases in the states. So obviously the technology exists its as simple as streaming via satellite. Without video if your just streaming telemetry and "alarms" its a surprisingly tiny amount of data/bandwidth by todays standards. There are satellites streaming literally millions and millions of times more data at any given moment for shit like your DirectTV box. I suspect like Chris said its a matter of cost versus benefit many airlines are flying old old stuff. Honestly it may also be a matter of NOT WANTING to for liability reasons. If the live data were to exist, it is evidence for lawsuits exposing the airline to liability most likely - pilot error, equipment failure, etc that such a system might transmit. Most corporations do not even keeps emails over a few months old anymore for just the same reason.

[LIL EVO]

I think cost to use ratio may be a factor. Plane crashes are *supposed* to be non-existent. What's the point of live streaming and that additional cost when there's only 1 crash per however many XXXXXX hours of flight.