NTSB Issues Recommendation A-18-031 to FAA for CVR Retrofit

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued recommendation number A-18-031, identified under reference DCA17IA148, addressed directly to the Federal Aviation Administration. This directive requires the agency to implement a retrofit mandate for all cockpit voice recorders on airplanes that are already required to carry both a cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder. The specific requirement mandates that these updated cockpit voice recorders must be capable of recording the last 25 hours of audio. The NTSB has set a compliance deadline of January 1, 2024, for the implementation of this safety measure. It is important to note that this recommendation has since been superseded by recommendation A-24-9.