Mandatory Implementation of Auxiliary Power Units for Black Boxes in Newly Introduced Aircraft

From now on, aircraft newly introduced by national airlines will be required to be equipped with a Record Independent Power Supply (RIPS), an auxiliary power device that supplies power to the black box in case of a power outage.

On the 13th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport reported this plan, titled the "Expansion Plan for Installing Auxiliary Power Devices on Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR)," at the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee meeting. Previously, the Jeju Air aircraft involved in an accident last December did not have black box recordings for the last four minutes before the collision. This aircraft was not equipped with an auxiliary power device.

RIPS is a device that can supply power for about 10 minutes to the CVR, one of the two black boxes on an aircraft, when the aircraft’s main power supply is cut off or unstable. The other black box, the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), records flight paths and engine output, but since no data is generated when the aircraft power is off, RIPS installation is not required for the FDR.

Firefighters are searching for belongings at the site of the Jeju Air passenger plane collision and explosion accident that occurred at Muan International Airport, Jeonnam, on December 30 last year. Photo by Jang Jin-hyeong

The Ministry plans to revise the operational technical standards for fixed-wing aircraft in August. According to the current standards, only aircraft that received their initial airworthiness certificate after January 2018?that is, aircraft manufactured after 2018?are required to be equipped with RIPS. Going forward, even aircraft manufactured before that date must be equipped with RIPS if brought in by national airlines for operation.

This requirement will not apply to existing aircraft without auxiliary power devices, as the cost runs into hundreds of millions of won and the technical review process takes a long time. Lease aircraft require the owner's consent, and experts have also reflected concerns about technical issues such as restoring the aircraft to its original state upon return. However, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to actively encourage installation by including RIPS installation status in the safety evaluation criteria of air traffic service assessments and by publicly disclosing non-equipped aircraft to the public. Foreign airlines’ aircraft are excluded due to concerns over potential international disputes.