Malaysian Airline: Is the FAA Stupid? Is it Senile??

A flight recorder, the big black box, is in place so when something goes wrong on a plane, we have some data to analyze and figure out what happened.  It's not just to have more accurate history but to make improvements that reduce the chance of another crash, hijacking, etc.

Okay, listen FAA (Federal Aviation Administration & the equivalent from other countries).  Pilots sometimes are part of the problem.  Why would you give them access to the flight recorders and the ability to turn them off.  That is just plain, unabashedly STUPID.

Second, why would you only record data to a box that may end up five miles deep at the bottom of the ocean.  Have you heard of the Internet?  Apparently FAA is not too smart, but couldn't they hire someone to set up a system to broadcast a signal from the plane to the Internet.  I'm not any smarter than the FAA in this matter, but I would bet Google could figure it out, after all some planes have in-flight Internet so it can't be all that complicated.

And third, does anyone really believe that turning on a cell phone jeopardizes the safety of the plane. How stupid do you think we are? If its true don't tell the terrorists. Really?  How many phone calls could have been made clandestinely and otherwise by the passengers on the Malaysian airliner if it was routine to use cell phones on a plane?  If it was normal to use a phone on the plane, do you think someone would have noticed when all the calls stopped.  How about all those text messages and Twitters that would have stopped coming out of the plane.  Or how many could have gotten through to tell us what was going on? Why don't we set up the Internet on the plane and only allow it to be disabled with the consent of the control tower and the pilot?

Reviewing.  The FAA is stupid.  Flight recorders should not be able to be shut down by the pilot. Automatic on, automatic off, pilot not required. When the FAA gets this message we will move on to lesson two.  We will go slow and work with the FAA.