Cockpit voice recordings get erased after some close calls. The FAA will try to fix that

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials say they will give investigators a better tool for understanding accidents and close calls between planes. The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it will propose that new planes have cockpit voice recorders that keep 25 hours of sound, up from the current two hours. The idea is to prevent valuable information from being lost. In one case, investigators couldn’t hear what American Airlines pilots were doing before they crossed a runway right in front of a Delta jet taking off from JFK Airport in New York. That’s because the American Airlines pilots took off for London, and whatever they said to each other during the close call was erased two hours later.