The Federal Aviation Administration has issued its final rule mandating significant improvements to aircraft cockpit voice and flight data recorders for commercial passenger and cargo aircraft.

Many of the large integrated and all-cargo carriers have already complied with the rule requiring retrofit on all aircraft with 10 or more seats, including cargo aircraft, operating under Part 121, 125 and 135 by March 7, 2012. The rule also mandates these enhancements on all newly built aircraft and helicopters after March 7, 2010.

The new rule mandates the CVRs capture the last two hours of cockpit audio instead of the current 15 to 30 minutes. The FDRs also must retain the last 25 hours of recorded information. An independent backup power source is also required for the CVRs that allow for continued recording capability for nine to 11 minutes if all aircraft power sources are lost or interrupted.

"These enhancements will give us more information about the causes of accidents and find ways to avoid them in the future," said Robert A. Sturgell, FAA's acting administrator.

Robert W. Moorman