It's Bonfire Night here in the UK tomorrow, a time when there are lots of stray fireworks in the sky. This fact, coinciding as it does with my flying off on holiday for a few days, prompted me to wonder just how much damage would be done if my plane was hit by a wandering firework - during takeoff of course, when the plane is at a low enough altitude to be hit.

Cheery thoughts!

Kat

On the news recently I heard of yet another search for the black box flight-data recorders from a missing aircraft. Why is this data not transmitted periodically to a satellite or ground station so that in the event of the unexplained loss of an aircraft, it would be readily available?

Peter Cole, Sark, Channel Islands