"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news
In article ,
Bob Larter wrote:

Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
"Arfa Daily" wrote:

Still, apparently, they have now located some wreckage 400 miles out
into
the Atlantic, so I guess that they have around 28 days left to locate
and
recover the CVR and FDR boxes, which apparently are likely to be lying
in
around 13000 feet of water. Seems like the batteries for the pingers
are
good for about 30 days, and the transmitter is just about man enough
to
get
a signal through 15000 feet of salt water. I guess that if they can
recover
them and they continued to function for any time after the initial
'event',
then we could know quite quickly what the primary cause of it going
down
was.

This whole "black box recovery" stuff seems silly to me. Given the
number of accidents in which the recorders are never found, or when
found are FUBAR, and given today's communications technology, I don't
know why data isn't being constantly streamed to ground recording
centers.

Technically, that'd be a bit tricky on (for example) a trip between New
York & London.

Really? So transatlantic flights are out of contact with flight control?

That certainly used to be the case. Most 'regular' civilian ATC takes place
on VHF, which obviously has quite limited range. Transatlantic airliners do
stay in contact with their own offices via HF SSB I believe, using a
sel-call system. I believe that weather reports are also communicated
likewise. I don't suppose that there is much need for ATC when mid Atlantic.
Your course is pretty much pre-planned and established, barring odd
unforseen circumstances. ATC monitoring used to be a bit of a hobby of mine,
but I haven't kept up to date with it. Maybe these days, they are in touch
with someone constantly. I guess it wouldn't be that difficult via
satellite, especially if they are already relaying ACARS data in that way,
as my pilot friend says they are.

Ah. Here ya go ...

http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=51137

Arfa