The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) says the requirement for flight data recorders (FDRs) should be extended to all Canadian commercial and private business aircraft operators.
Lightweight recording systems should be mandatory for the commercial and private business operators not covered by existing regulations, the TSB said in a safety recommendation issued Thursday to Transport Canada.
The existing regulations base requirements for FDRs primarily on the number and type of engines in an aircraft, the number of passenger seats, and the type of operation in which it is engaged, the TSB said. Typically, smaller commercial aircraft lack the system infrastructure to support an FDR, and some other aircraft types are not compatible with conventional FDRs; many of these aircraft, however, could accommodate lightweight recording systems, the TSB said.
The TSB’s recommendation was included in Thursday’s final report on the Oct. 13, 2016, crash of a Norjet Cessna Citatio…
