Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
Out of interest, can you think of any accident investigation where ADS-B has provided more of a clue to probable cause than the evidence provided by the FDR and CVR?
No, and I can't imagine a case of where it ever would. But I will say that having ADS-B data from surrounding flights, and from preceding flights, is an added dimension. On EK521, for example, I could watch the tail-wind shear evolve on each successive plane on the approach. I could compare the Pence plane path in space to those ahead of it.
But what if we don't recover the recorders?
MH370. All we have are a handful of indirect position estimates.
Or what if it takes nearly two years to recover the recorders?
AF447 made a lot of hay over a handful of ACARS messages that implicated air data faults.
MS804 ADS-B data was catastrophic, and an ACARS message showed smoke. Six months later forensics are describing evidence of explosives.
We started flight data recording over 50 years ago with altitude, airspeed, heading, and vertical accelerations as a function of time. That is about where we are with ADS-B telemetry, and I foresee a chance to build out an acceptable data set.