NTSB calls on FAA to retrofit aircraft with 25 hour recording devices

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has again called on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ask that all existing aircraft be retrofitted with a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder capable of storing 25 hours’ worth of audio. Director of the NTSB’s office of aviation safety Tim LeBaron describes CVRs as “among the most valuable tools for accident investigation because they provide contemporaneous information on flight crew intentions and co-ordination as well as other factors”. However, investigators were unable to access the CVR audio of the recent Alaska Airlines door plug blowout incident as the data was