China Eastern Airlines belongs to Air China or Shandong Airlines. Why can't the black box be equipped with a locator?

The air crash of China Eastern Airlines worried people all over the country. Although the data shows that the accident rate of airplanes is much lower than that of automobiles, no one can completely avoid accidents. After an air crash, rescuers usually find the plane's black box as soon as possible, and use these data to restore the air crash and find out the cause of the accident, but the black box is not easy to find, and many planes disappear after the crash. For example, on March 8, 20 14, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 crashed, and the black box has not been found yet. In some air crashes, the found black box has been seriously deformed, and data recovery is facing great difficulties. Therefore, many people wonder whether the current technical level can not locate the black box by satellite or transmit the data to the cloud for backup.

First of all, why the satellite locator can't be installed on the black box. In an air crash, the plane often crashes at high speed, which easily leads to the explosion and disintegration of the plane. Therefore, the black box is generally installed at the tail of the aircraft, which is a relatively safe position after a lot of accident analysis. Even if the black box is installed in this position, it cannot be avoided from being damaged, so it is necessary to add a thick shell to the black box. Usually, the shell of a black box is made of titanium steel. Not only has high strength, but also has the characteristics of high temperature resistance and corrosion resistance. But titanium steel is also a kind of metal, which will shield electromagnetic signals. So even if the satellite locator is installed on the black box, it will be shielded by the metal shell.

Then why not back up the data to the cloud or transmit it in real time? Many people may feel that there are technical obstacles, but it is actually technically feasible. First of all, uploading data requires the help of the network. Now many international flights have WIFI available, and domestic flights are gradually popularizing WIFI, and the technical level can be achieved. The real difficulty lies in the economic and security aspects. For the civil aviation industry, cost control is extremely important. Compared with the one-time consumption of black boxes, the cost of transmitting data by satellite is very high.

First of all, it is necessary to install satellite communication equipment on the plane. In addition to installing these devices, you also need to rent network bandwidth from the communication company. A large amount of data is stored in the black box. To realize real-time transmission, it is necessary to ensure the transmission speed and quality. This is different from small-scale WIFI, which requires sufficient bandwidth support and a special data storage center on the ground, which means that airlines will increase a lot of costs. Generally speaking, a plane crash is a small probability event and may never happen. Paying a high fee for this feature is not cost-effective for airlines. If it is really done, these costs will be shared among all links, including the ticket price, which will be more expensive, which is not conducive to the popularization of civil aviation.

Secondly, there is the problem of data security. Black box mainly includes two parts, flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. The flight data recorder can record more than 3000 data points on a passenger plane. Obtaining these data means that everything on the plane can be mastered. If these data are used by a willing heart during transmission, it will threaten the safety of everyone on the flight. So until now, civil airliners still adopt the solution of installing black boxes.

Considering all aspects, the most suitable solution for civil airliners at present is to install black boxes. When an accident happens, the black box will generally disintegrate with the plane and will not be far away from the scene of the accident. Although it is not easy to find, most of them can still be found. However, it is also hoped that in the future, the cost will be gradually reduced through the iteration of technology, and functions such as flight data backup will be gradually popularized. In this process, data security issues cannot be ignored.