When Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared two weeks ago, evidence about what went wrong vanished with it. Any answers are likely trapped in the flight data recorder.
The technology already exists. Canadian company Flyht Aerospace Solutions makes the Automated Flight Information System, or AFIRS, which automatically monitors data such as location, altitude, and performance. And it can live stream information when something goes wrong. Flyht director Richard Hayden contends that we would have more answers today if that technology had been on Flight 370. "We would know where the aircraft has gone, where it is, and we would have information on what had happened in the meantime," he said. On a normal flight, the system would send updates every five to 10 minutes. It can be programmed to recognize when something is wrong, such as a deviation in flight path, and automatically begin streaming second-by-second data.
EmoticonEmoticon