not only why are we not this or why someone did what they did, but why are we sitting here, trying to rush this investigation when we should have 90 days on the pinger and should have 90 days to do that. why are we here without the information of where the aircraft was located, what happened what information did we not have that we should have had. and mary has been a big proponent since 9/11 to get this done where we have a constant stream of data. why is it not happening, they have been gutted with deregulation and they are having a hard time saying this has to be done. i don t care what it costs. let s move forward. perhaps even longer. some people wonder why is it longer the battery life on the black boxes. robert, anyone who has watched this program over the weeks know that i m fascinated with deep sea, with the deep sea. one of my favorite documentaries is blue planet by the bbc.
what are the changes that have been made to air travel after the past plane disasters, david, do you think? well, let s talk about the black boxes for a second. like mary said, they have advanced to about 1970 when they went to i guess 76 when they went to a all-digital solid state type environment. before that it was a metal tape that actually scratched the altitude in to this metal tape. so there s been advancements, but since 1978, which is when the deregulation act went in the place it has been difficult as an faa inspector it was difficult for me to mandate any safety requirement. at that point, after deregulation, i had to do a cost analysis and determine this safety recommendation, i had to figure out how much it would cost the airline and that was put forward to say here s how much it will cost. is it worth it or not? that s the crux of this. this is the why michael was talking about earlier.
the last two hours of voice transmission in the cockpit. the flight data recorder records a lot further back than that. the next step will be sending down a r.o.v., a robotic submersible that this is a work class rov. it is industrial strength if you like. able to bring back quite large pieces to the surface. if you get the black boxes, you don t usually need to go back too much further with forensic examinations. what if they don t reveal everything? like i said, this flight flew on for more hours than usually, i guess the cockpit voice recorder usually records. david, correct me if i am wrong here, is there is a possibility that the black boxes won t have all of the data on it and what if it doesn t? what will they do then? i have been hesitant to bring this up previously. when we talk about the flight
it is going to be hard to find ping or no ping. you are sort of in the dark literally looking for it. those pings all important as they try to pinpoint where those boxes might be. don? michael, when we last spoke you said the planes haven t taken off yet and the weather was great. it appears to be beautiful behind you. is it cooperating with searchers today? it is actually. there s a little wind out there in the search area. here it s warming up. classic sort of perth autumn day. out there, it s a little windy and cloudy, could be rain, as well. we heard one plane firing up here. the chinese planes that go out, as well, we should point out go out from perth airport which is miles away and they are probably already up and out there. there will be a dozen planes in all out there searching, looking for debris. interestingly a lot of other boats. the one that is towing the ping locater is pretty much on his own in that tight search area. the rest are way further west,
are we pushing the limits of what is technologically possible? not techno logically possible all together but for the bluefin and the manufacture at the bluefin at the moment is looking at how far they can exceed the depth rating for the device. there s always overengineering in these things and they maybe over 10, 20% but there are vehicles that go to 11,000 meters or 36,000 feet. there s a possibility, right because the flight went on for seven or so hours it s believed. if the black boxes don t reveal what happened on the plane, what other tools will investigators have? what is it, the black boxes do about two hours before yes. i mean, the black boxes record