The government and industry officials in the United States have been figuring out ways to make it easier to locate black boxes and airliners which are reported to be missing. However, when it comes to the Malaysian Airlines jet which disappeared during the weekend, it seems like these efforts are too late to help.
Attempts to find new ways of locating missing aircraft increased after the search for Air France Flight 447. The flight in question disappeared somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009. It was two years later, in 2011 that the main wreckage of the Airbus A330, as well as its black boxes were recovered from 13,000 feet below the surface of the ocean.
After this incident, the US, as well as European industry officials and technical organizations have discussed the need for underwater locator beacons on the black boxes and that they should last at least 90 days instead of the current 30 days. This will make the boxes float and they would be easier to find, however, this is still a work in progress.
William Waldock, the professor of accident investigation at the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University said, “I think at the time a lot of people were looking at Air France 447 as unique”. The Malaysian jet disappeared over an open ocean on March 8, 2014 and the search for it is still ongoing.
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