In light of the recent plane crash in Pakistan, reports suggest that it will take 6-7 months to decode the black box.
The company that made the black box surely knows how to decrypt their encryption, so why would it take so long?
Also, assuming the encyrption is super-complicated, what sensitive data would warrant such encryption? Is it just voice recordings, or something more?
In: Technology
Pilot here.
**TL;DR… The time is in the full investigation, not just the box data.**
If a Flight Data Recorder is intact, getting the data is relatively quick and easy once found. There may be some damage to components or incomplete information that requires interpretation. Forensic techniques can get some of that data back. Relative to the whole endeavor, it’s a small portion of the effort.
That data is correlated to other evidence to figure out what happened. That evidence is gathered physically and through interviews and records.
Here’s a non-comprehensive list of things an investigation will be looking for:
* Aircrew Background: Mannerisms before flight. Diet. Illness. Fatigue. Alcohol. Medication. Stress. Major life events. Reputation. Training history and performance. Identified human factors in all of this history. Personality (Excess/Lack of Confidence, attitude toward bending/breaking rules, communication skill etc). Group Dynamics. Social barriers (see Korean flight that crashed in SF). Conflict. 24hr(or more) history to include what they did day of, night before, day before, even week before. Family Dynamics. Things they’ve said not just in the cockpit, but out of the cockpit.
* Aircraft Operation: within SOP/Regulation/Training/Aircraft Limits. Deviations from normal operations and reason. Acceptance of failed equipment (there’s always failed equipment on a plane, there is guidance on what is safe to take flying), unusual control inputs (too aggressive, not aggressive enough, autopilot usage), systems setup (navigation used, parameters such as Baro Bug set correctly)
* Environment: weather, history of aircrew flying in said weather, equipment and qualification suitable for weather, aircraft/aircrew/airport/maintenance/operational/navigational complications due to weather, airport/control operations in general (pace, safety, same considerations for controllers as there are for aircrew), company culture, dispatch helpfulness, clarity in communication.
* Physical/Engineering: Part exceeded limits. Part failure due to random/user error/malice/engineering/maintenance/unforeseen incompatibility. Personnel access to those parts same considerations for maintainers/engineers as for aircrew and controllers and their companies and training.
* Training: Adequate. Culture…
Just fill in the gaps already because I’ve only got like half of them. All of this has to be strung together to figure out and rule out causal factors to an incident, and come up with recommendations to prevent further related incidents, and do so with a high degree of certainty that all of this is correct.
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