Cockpit voice recorders must now face forward on regional jets

The US aviation regulator is ordering an inspection of cockpit voice recorders on specific regional jet models. This is to ensure the impact switch, which protects crash data, is installed correctly and facing the right direction.

A cockpit voice recorder is designed to capture the last two hours of audio in the cockpit, crucial for understanding what happened in an accident. If the impact switch is installed backward, it might not protect the data in a crash. This rule ensures that a critical piece of safety equipment actually works as intended.