, Columnist
How to Stop Mysterious Plane Crashes
Cockpit data can now be livestreamed. Why are airlines resisting it?
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When Air France Flight 447 crashed in the Atlantic in 2009, it took two years and more than $25 million before investigators found it. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in 2014 and still hasn't turned up. EgyptAir 804, lost on May 19, is somewhere on the bottom of the Mediterranean, but until investigators can dredge up its "black box," they won't know why it went down.
All these incidents raise the same question: In an age of ubiquitous surveillance and digital tracking, how is it possible that planes don't transmit their cockpit data in real time?