Russian investigators to press ICAO for cabin cameras
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Russian accident investigation representatives are to put the case for equipping passenger cabins with airborne image recorders to a high-level International Civil Aviation Organisation safety conference at the end of this month.
The Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK), in a working paper ahead of the Montreal gathering, says that the potential advantage of cockpit cameras, to support cockpit voice recordings, have been pressed for several years.
But it also cites the problems of obtaining independent analysis of evacuation procedures.
MAK says that the fatal overrun of an S7 Airlines Airbus A310 at Irkutsk in July 2006 resulted in 120 passenger fatalities, and medical evidence showed that all but one succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning and lack of oxygen.
"Most people did not die because of the collision, but as a result of secondary effects," it says. "The assessment of the evacuation process was significantly hindered by the lack of objective data and [differing] explanations of the surviving passengers and cabin crew."
MAK adds that a similar situation was experienced after the loss of an Itek Air Boeing 737-200 outside Bishkek in August 2008, which killed 64 of the 85 passengers.
Medical analysis, it says, revealed that passengers died not from internal injuries but from thermal shock in a smokeless atmosphere, after the cabin was exposed to high temperatures by ground fire - raising questions about the apparent inability to evacuate.
"Investigators actually lack objective information on the evacuation process," says MAK, given that the only source of data tends to be confused testimony from those on board.
It says that ICAO should view the installation of cameras in the cabin - as well as other areas, including the cockpit and cargo hold - as a "necessity" and pursue the issue "as a matter of high priority".
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