Making sense out of tragedy is never easy and often impossible. So it is with the helicopter crash that killed Gianna and Kobe Bryant and the seven others shown in the photo above.

We’ve heard all kinds of reporting surrounding what happened: perhaps it was the weather, perhaps this or that. However, what struck me the most is that, in this computer age we live in, the helicopter had no black boxes.

Historically, black boxes have taken good away from the worse situations. The recordings allows us to learn what went wrong and how to fix it. Air travel gets safer every time information from the boxes tells us what happened.

If you’re not familiar, there are two boxes (which actually are normally bright orange and not black at all) that record what’s going on during a flight. There’s the flight data recorder (FDR) which keeps a record of what the instrumentation is seeing and of other hardware items on an aircraft. Then, there’s the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) which records what was being said by the pilot and other crew members.

It’s difficult to believe that the $13 Million helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76B, that Kobe and the others flew in, did not have black boxes. Because they weren’t there, finding out what happened will be much more difficult for the NTSB, FAA and FBI. To me, it would be logical for helicopter manufacturers to learn from this and add the boxes to helicopters already in service and to those which will be manufactured in the future.

As for those who lost there lives in this crash, may they rest in peace. Please keep the families left behind in your prayers and thoughts.