A call to increase the battery life of ULBs was made following the unsuccessful initial search in 2009 for the flight recorders on Air France Flight 447 , which were not located until 2011 . A formal recommendation that the ULB design be upgraded to offer a longer battery life , or to make the recorders ejectable , had been included in the final report of the board of inquiry into the loss of South African Airways Flight 295 over the Indian Ocean in 1987 , but it was not until 2014 that the ICAO made such a recommendation , with implementation required by 2018 . The European Aviation Safety Agency ( EASA ) has issued new regulations that require the transmitting time of ULBs fitted to aircraft flight recorders to be increased from 30 to 90 days , to be implemented by 1 January 2020 . The agency has also proposed that a new underwater locator beacon with a greater range of transmission should be fitted to aircraft that fly over oceans . In June 2015 , Dukane , a manufacturer of underwater locator beacons , began selling beacons with a 90-day battery life
Air France Flight 447
Air France Flight 447
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370