Spurred by the disappearances of several airplanes whose wreckage, including the flight recorders, remained undiscovered for months or years, Airbus plans to introduce two new types of recorders — a deployable recorder for its larger airplanes and a fixed recorder for shorter-range A320s.
Eventually, Airbus said, “deployable voice and data recovery devices could … be offered for the entire range of Airbus commercial aircraft.”
The company made the announcement in late June, five months after authorities suspended the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777-200ER carrying 239 passengers and crew that vanished March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. When the 777 disappeared, it was not in contact with air traffic control and not visible on radar.
Although a few pieces of wreckage have washed ashore on Indian Ocean islands, the flight recorders have not been found, and authorities have not determined what led to the 777’s disappear…
