The tragic Air India Boeing 787-8 crash on June 12 has triggered a renewed global debate: Why don’t commercial aircraft include cockpit cameras? The cockpit voice recorder detailed a very strange exchange between the pilots, “Why did you turn the fuel off?” “I did not.” Questions arose about human error, mechanical failure, or even sabotage. However, without video to show the actions taken by the pilots, speculations remain.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau of India (AAIB) published a preliminary report one month after the crash and there has been, since then, public opinion largely siding with adding cockpit video recorders. The logic is straightforward; if cars, school buses, and even ride-share networks have accountability through dashboard cameras, why shouldn’t we apply the same principles to aircraft, which are obvioulsy more complex and much more important to safe travel?

The black box of an aircraft, made up of the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, is an important piece of evidence in crash investigations. Each of these instruments records hundreds of parameters related to the flight and all the voice communications in the cockpit.

However, as demonstrated by the Air India incident, audio alone leaves considerable opportunities for uncertainty. A camera in the cockpit could have more clearly established whether the fuel cutoff was accidental, technical or intentional.

Some countries are starting to investigate such technologies. China has apparently been working on introducing cameras into new COMAC aircraft, and some helicopters already have cockpit video systems for training and observation. Further, while cameras are not expressly forbidden on commercial aircraft by the European authorities (EASA), they are by the U.S. authority (FAA).

The clear trend of public interest especially in the wake of the AAIB report, indicates that there are a significant number of people out there who believe cockpit cameras can contributor positively to safety, injury avoidance, inaccurate decision making and they are a terrific source of indisputable evidence in safety-related investigations.

Lawyers and aviation safety practitioners across the world have joined in the ultimate question: Why the delay?

As history has demonstrated in the resistance to cockpit voice recorders, once resistence to the use of voice recorders transformed into the widespread acceptance of a vital piece of traditional crash analysis; the same may happen for crash videos.

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As we enter an age that has become predominately supported by visual information and moreover what is outdoor accountability and transparency, video footage in the cockpit could avert needless opposition. The safety versus privacy discussion is a fine line, but when it comes to the loss of 260 lives, it ought to tilt greatly in favour of safety.

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