We shouldn’t rely on black boxes to investigate air crashes

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 without a trace, and although now it appears likely that the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean, it is still not clear what actually happened on the flight, leaving government officials, airline employees and the families of the 239 people on board asking questions.

Without finding the plane’s black box, we will never know what went wrong.

Black boxes provide flight data for airlines and investigators, including cruising altitudes, speed and engine readings, as well as a voice recording from the cockpit.

Black boxes help investigators understand the causes of crashes and help airlines develop preventive measures against future crashes. However, black boxes only allow for post-mortem data analysis.

But with today’s satellite, cell tower and data streaming technology, airlines have the capability to live-stream flight information from airplanes to the ground anywhere in the world, whether flying over land or an ocean, permitting real-time analysis of flight data. More than a decade ago, I outlined “glass box” technology that can do just that.

With glass box technology, essential flight data such as altitude and cruising speed would be streamed to airline computers that can detect abnormal changes, such as a sudden drop in altitude or an unusual change of speed.

Airline officials could then pull live-streamed audio from the cockpit to listen in on a possible hijacking or to find out whether the plane’s pilots are in control of the aircraft. The airline also could stream data by the minute about the flight’s path, instrument readings and more.

The system could offer unlimited storage and information search options vital to investigations, families of passengers on board, and future training for pilots and crew members.

This method of streaming information isn’t new. It is used by analysts to detect cyberattacks, and even government officials and manufacturers use it to detect failures in the design of automobiles.

Our soldiers use software-defined radios that can switch between different types of communication networks, whether they are on land, air or ocean.

It is time for airlines to adopt these technologies.

After my initial research in the early 2000s, I went to the Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and airline corporations to discuss creating prototypes to further test the technology. Airlines said then, and continue to say, that glass boxes are too expensive.

We can explore various design alternatives to minimize the cost, and I have proposed such alternatives. One can consider triggering data streaming only in case of an emergency, or send different amounts of data based on the cost and availability of data bandwidths.

However, without exploring such alternatives, we cannot perform a cost-benefit analysis of glass boxes or understand the potential advantages such technologies could bring.

When black boxes were developed in the 1950s, they were amazing feats of engineering and have proved helpful when they are recovered. But in 2014, with so much technology available to us, the glass box is the logical next step.

By Krishna Kavi, a professor of computer science and engineering in the University of North Texas’ College of Engineering. He also is director of the National Science Foundation-funded Net-Centric Software and Systems Center at UNT.