Crash investigators press for cockpit video

WASHINGTON – Investigators from the United States and Great Britain stepped up pressure Tuesday to put crash-resistant video recorders in airline cockpits to help shed light on plane crashes.

The federal investigators said at a hearing sponsored by the National Transportation Safety Board that the latest digital technology has made cockpit video recorders inexpensive and practical. They cited several plane crashes, including the accident that killed Sen. Paul Wellstone in 2002, as cases that would have been solved more quickly if investigators could have seen what pilots were doing.

“We are frustrated by the lack of action on this,” said Carol Carmody of the NTSB.

The NTSB has recommended video recorders since 2000, and British investigators have pushed the idea since 1985. But the concept faces intense opposition from pilots, who fear gruesome pictures of accidents could become public. Aviation regulators in Europe and the USA have not mandated the use of recorders.

The nation’s two largest pilots’ unions attacked the idea Tuesday as “fool’s gold.” They maintain that the value of recorders is exaggerated.

Current regulations require sound recorders in airline cockpits and data recorders that track how a plane flies.

But recorders often leave questions unanswered, such as which pilot was flying or whether safety procedures were followed. Some small aircraft and charter planes don’t have any recorders. Adding video, possibly from multiple cameras, would provide a detailed record of pilots’ actions.

Investigators say video recordings would have helped them in several cases:

ValuJet Flight 592, which crashed into the Florida Everglades on May 11, 1996. The NTSB found that a fire in a cargo hold caused the crash, but investigators wanted to know more about the conditions the pilots faced in the cockpit.

Wellstone’s crash near Eveleth, Minn., on Oct. 25, 2002. The NTSB blamed pilot error but could not determine why the errors occurred.

EgyptAir Flight 990, which plunged into the Atlantic Ocean on Oct. 31, 1999. Investigators concluded that a co-pilot intentionally crashed the jet, but the evidence was circumstantial.