Originally Posted by
AirScotia
It can't be beyond technical capabilities to stream both CVR and FDR, but keep the voice channel private, separate and only accessible with legal permissions.
For example, the voice data could be sent encrypted while the technical data is unencrypted, with the voice recording only able to be opened via a decryption code embedded in the FDR data. That way, it would only be accessed under the same circumstances under which CVRs are accessed today. After all, the main information that's needed is the technical data - I doubt many pilots' last words include co-ordinates?
I suspect that for commercial reasons all the data would be encrypted. There is no reason for the airline to hold the decryption key that could be held by a trusted third party repository say IATA. It would be possible for the data to require two decryption keys one from the repository and one from the airline. So access is only possible in the case of an accident and not for random trawling by bored airline management.