FAA Orders Black Box Upgrades Will Record More Sound, Have Power Back-Up Feb 24, 2005 1:58 pm US/Eastern WASHINGTON (AP) The black boxes that record events leading up to aircraft= crashes must hold more data and have a more reliable power supply under = a plan outlined Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration. = Federal safety regulators have long urged the FAA to adopt stricter requi= rements for the black boxes after the devices failed to yield useful info= rmation during the investigations of several fatal airliner accidents, in= cluding the 1998 crash of Swissair Flight 111 off the coast of Halifax, N= ova Scotia, and the 1999 crash of Egyptair Flight 990 off the Nantucket c= oast. = "Good data is often the Rosetta Stone to deciphering what happened in an = aircraft incident and what could happen in an accident," said FAA Adminis= trator Marion Blakey. = The new rules require cockpit voice recorders, which record pilots' conve= rsations, to retain at least two hours of audio and have a 10-minute back= up power source. They are now only required to record 15 to 30 minutes of= sound and don't have to have backup power. = Flight data recorders, which record the movement of cockpit controls, mus= t sample data more often. Now, they have to measure data every second; th= e proposal would require sampling every 1/16th of a second. = (=A9 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may no= t be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ) Roger EWROPS