You're illustrating my point about how people without experience in the field are severely underestimating the harshness of the environment. > a battery powere

You're illustrating my point about how people without experience in the field are severely underestimating the harshness of the environment. > a battery powered satellite link Battery powered? Batteries are big fire risks (ask Boeing, they know all about it). Where are you going to put the battery? You can't put it next to the transmitter (which, needing line of sight, would go on the top of the plane), because you want the battery to be serviceable with relative ease. So now you've got a power line running from the battery to the transmitter, which is no different to a power line running from the main power feed. Let's scrap the battery. > wouldn't necessarily lose touch until impact [...] at the very least, the plane's position would be known and rescuers dispatched Satellite linkups are flaky, they need line of sight. Planes at cruising altitude travel extremely fast. The plane's exact position would not be known. > Critical evidence in this incident is likely long gone because of the time that has passed - even if we find it today If the recorders can be recovered this is unlikely. Flight recorders are designed to capture the information needed to figure out what happened. Air France 447 was lost for two years, and yet investigators were still able to establish with near certainty what happened. > Video feeds etc. would at the very least assist in preventing future tragedies and help us understand exactly what happened. I can see how video feeds could possibly be useful in establishing what happened in a terrorist attack or hijacking. In terms of telemetric data and establishing mechanical failure causes they are not very useful. I get that a lot of people on HN have lots of great ideas, but this is an area where you really need to know exactly how harsh the environment is before you can start throwing suggestions around like they're basic common sense.