Prompted by difficulties retrieving flight-data recorders after recent fatal airliner crashes, European aviation regulators want to start using satellites to transmit critical in-flight safety information.

The European Union and other European aviation organisations are for the first time calling on the International Civil Aviation Organisation to adopt streaming in-flight data about aircraft maneuvers and pilot commands via satellites. The concept has gained currency following the crash last June of the Air France A330 into the Atlantic, killing all aboard, after departing Brazil.