NTSB To Hold Hearings On Cockpit Video Recorders

The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a two-day public hearing on the feasibility and benefits of cockpit imaging (video) recorders.

The hearing will convene at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 27, at the NTSB's Conference Center and Board Room, 429 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington (DC).

The Safety Board has recommended that commercial aircraft be equipped with video recorders. In 2000, following problems retrieving data from cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders in a series of major investigations (among them the crash of ValuJet flight 592 in the Everglades in 1996 and the crash of EgyptAir flight 990 in the Atlantic Ocean in 1999), the Board recommended to the Federal Aviation Administration that transport category aircraft be equipped with cockpit image recorders to capture information on crew performance and on conditions in the cockpit.

Also in 2000, the Board recommended that the FAA require video recorders, in lieu of flight data recorders, in the smaller turbine-powered aircraft frequently employed in scheduled and nonscheduled Part 135 operations.

Examples of aircraft that had no recorders but would be covered by the recommendation were the Cessna Caravan that crashed in Montrose, Colorado in 1997, killing all 10 persons aboard, and the Raytheon King Air that crashed in Minnesota in 2000, killing Senator Paul Wellstone and six others.

Installation of cockpit image recorders is an issue on the Board's Most Wanted List of Safety Recommendations.

NTSB Member Carol Carmody will chair the hearing. Expected to testify are witnesses from the federal government, both civilian and military, recorder manufacturers, airplane manufacturers, and commercial pilots.

"We have had far too many accident investigations in recent years where vital information that was lost could have been documented with the help of cockpit imaging recorders," Member Carmody said. "In this hearing we'll hear from all major players about the feasibility and benefits of these recorders, and about what legal protections are necessary to enhance our investigation capability."

FMI: www.ntsb.gov