<story><title>Why aren&apos;t black box flight recorders better?</title><url>https://www.afar.com/magazine/how-black-boxes-changed-air-travel</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ajsnigrutin</author><text>Is there some good explanation, show a sinking titanic was heard both in london and new york, but a modern(...ish) MH-370 can just dissapear?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m sure that there are a bunch of factors in play, but tracking a plane seems like a relatively simple and a high priority thing to do, and relatively cheap compared to a total cost of a plane. GPS, satellite connectivity, battery backup and even in a case of a total explosion, at least you know the last location, speed and direction to try to find the wreckage.</text></item><item><author>bnycum</author><text>I work on flight data recorders, mainly in rotorcraft but some small fixed wing aircraft. The current generation does use a satellite connection for real time tracking, as well as sending high level caution information, and a few data parameters. Really the cost of sending data over the satellite is the real issue. However this is coming down.&lt;p&gt;Outside of that, the ADS-B requirement is a huge help in knowing where aircraft are and where they are going.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ipython</author><text>The difference is that the mh370 pilot deliberately took actions to avoid tracking. At some point if you can’t trust the captain of your vessel, that person can disrupt or disable most any system put in place.&lt;p&gt;If the captain of the titanic intended on sinking the ship without a trace, he most certainly would have succeeded as well.&lt;p&gt;A more apt comparison would be AF447, which took a few days before the wreckage was found. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Air_France_Flight_447&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Air_France_Flight_447&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Why aren&apos;t black box flight recorders better?</title><url>https://www.afar.com/magazine/how-black-boxes-changed-air-travel</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ajsnigrutin</author><text>Is there some good explanation, show a sinking titanic was heard both in london and new york, but a modern(...ish) MH-370 can just dissapear?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m sure that there are a bunch of factors in play, but tracking a plane seems like a relatively simple and a high priority thing to do, and relatively cheap compared to a total cost of a plane. GPS, satellite connectivity, battery backup and even in a case of a total explosion, at least you know the last location, speed and direction to try to find the wreckage.</text></item><item><author>bnycum</author><text>I work on flight data recorders, mainly in rotorcraft but some small fixed wing aircraft. The current generation does use a satellite connection for real time tracking, as well as sending high level caution information, and a few data parameters. Really the cost of sending data over the satellite is the real issue. However this is coming down.&lt;p&gt;Outside of that, the ADS-B requirement is a huge help in knowing where aircraft are and where they are going.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>teraflop</author><text>&amp;gt; show a sinking titanic was heard both in london and new york, but a modern(...ish) MH-370 can just dissapear?&lt;p&gt;What do you mean by &amp;quot;heard both in London and New York&amp;quot;? The Titanic was actively sending out distress signals via telegraph as it sank, but those signals weren&amp;#x27;t strong enough to reach land. They were picked up by other nearby vessels and relayed.</text></comment>