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Comment by ginko | Hacker News Reader

How much data can 25h of voice and instrument recordings be? Even with multiple channels and uncompressed it can barely be more than a couple gigabytes.

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Given that Boeing currently has to ship planes to Europe with 25 hours of recording capacity, and that this plane is only a few months old, I'd guess it already has 25 hours of capacity and it's artificially limited to 2 because it was shipped to the US, due to the opposition from pilot's unions.

Not necessarily, could very well be that US planes are shipped without 25 hours of recording capacity.

Don't be so dense. Even if that is the case, it it probably is not, there exists a certified flight recorder module with 25h capacity. They should not have to go through any 'soup to nuts' certification process for a new module with this capacity. They could simply take the current module they use in europe, give it a quick once over ( assuming european standards are at least as strict as american standards.. which i'm sure they are ) and say 'yup, buy and install those in all new craft'.

Aircraft certification is, well, peculiar. And believe me, modifying a delivered aircraft is nowhere near as easy as "install that certified box", because said box has to be compatible with the aircraft you want to install it on.

And as I said, no idea how US-only aircraft differ, hardware and software wise, from their European airspace brethren. Do no, it is propably not as easy as going into maintenance mode and set a toghle from 2 to 25 hours on the voice recorder firmware.

any 737 in europe uses such a module as it is required.

You’re applying a technical standard to a people problem.

The issue here is likely legal liability, as evidenced by the pilot’s union opposition to longer recordings.

Idk how the devices work but if you have to replace them to get the extra capacity, it would still cost the airlines money, and the FAA has historically been very friendly with airlines.

It's not about cost or technology. The pilot's union is against longer recordings.

And cost, according to a FAA quote in the linked article.

Retrofit would cost money. But mandating years ago that new planes and anything going throw certain levels of maintenance would have update would not be that expensive.

Why is that?

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