Revisions to Digital Flight Data Recorder Rules

This document revises and updates the Federal Aviation Regulations to require that certain airplanes be equipped to accommodate additional digital flight data recorder (DFDR) parameters. These revisions follow a series of safety recommendations issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) decision that the DFDR rules should be revised to upgrade recorder capabilities in most transport airplanes. These revisions will require additional information to be collected to enable more thorough accident or incident investigation and to enable industry to predict certain trends and make necessary modifications before an accident or incident occurs.