DCA - Stop Waiting for Black Boxes

WASHINGTON - Jan. 30, 2025 - PRLog -- More than 12 hours after the mid-air collision at Reagan Airport, the NTSB hadn't recovered the black boxes crucial to help determine the cause of the deadly crash which killed more then 60 people, and which could hold the key to making the flights now continuing to fly to and from DCA safer.

But this is wrong and should be unnecessary, says Professor John Banzhaf of George Washington University, an MIT-educated engineer with 2 U.S. patents who has written extensively on accident prevention and data recovery.

He notes that technology which wasn't available when the black box program was developed now makes it possible to transmit vast amounts of data from aircraft in flight to satellite receivers, making the long waits to recover them (if they can ever be recovered) unnecessary.

AI programs, might well have even prevented Wednesday's crash if such systems had been developed when the recent increase in runway incursions became a major concern. See, e.g.:
Reagan Airport Crash - Could AI Have Prevented It? * * * Human Error is a Likely Cause; AI Can Supplement Humans
Still Another Airport Near Crash – Can AI Help? Southwest Plane Just Missed Cessna at San Diego (https://www.valuewalk.com/still-another-airport-near-cras...)

Returning to the issue of black boxes, more than ten years ago, when Malaysian flight MH370 went missing, and its flight data recorders were lost (and to this day have never been recovered), the professor pointed out that the precise location of its crash into the ocean, as well as all the data in its flight recorder, could have been known and recovered almost immediately by using small devices commonly found on small sea-going yachts called EPIRBs.  See, e.g.:
Locating Titan Should Have Been Quicker and Less Expensive; Why Were There No EPIRBs and/or Pingers on This Submersible? (https://www.valuewalk.com/locating-titan-should-have-been...)
A New 10-Years-Later Search for MH370 - But Why Not Prevent the Need * * * Already Existing Inexpensive Floatable EPIRBs Would Eliminate The Problem (http://prsync.com/george-washington-university/a-new--years-later-search-for-mh---by-why-not-prevent-need----already-existing-inexpensive-floatable-epirbs-would-eliminate-the--4518133/)

Today, due to major advantages regarding satellite communications, a hiker in the middle of the woods, and far from any cell tower, can use a cell phone to send text to a satellite where it can be transmitted to anyone with an Internet connection, says Banzhaf, noting that he holds a U.S. patent on a directional antenna for space satellites.

If a cell phone, with its tiny battery, can today transmit from the ground a signal to a satellite, a modern commercial airplane - fixed wing or helicopter - with its vastly greater electrical power and located far above the earth should be able to likewise transmit its vital operational data to a satellite.

http://banzhaf.net/ jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com @profbanzhaf