The Quick Access Recorder is optional.

Since the 1970s most large civil jet transports have been additionally equipped with a "quick access recorder" (QAR).

Quick access recorder (QAR)

The QAR was the Quick Access Recorder, another flight data recorder installed to help the maintenance crews.

The Quick Access Recorder, designed and produced in Poland, was sent to Poland and analysed there, with the participation of Russian experts.

A third flight recorder, a Quick Access Recorder (QAR) designed for maintenance diagnostics, was found on 12 April.

Despite not being designed to withstand a crash, the investigation was able to obtain information from the electronic memories of the Quick Access Recorder and one of the FMS units.

The flight data stored in the volatile memory of the aircraft's Quick Access Recorder (QAR) during the last 500 ft of the approach could not be recovered due to the interruption of the power supply at impact.

In other cases the data is downloaded from the aircraft's Quick Access Recorder (QAR), either by transfer to a portable solid state recording device or by direct upload to the operator's headquarters via radio or satellite.

A quick access recorder (QAR) is an airborne flight data recorder designed to provide quick and easy access to raw flight data, through means such as USB or cellular network connections and/or the use of standard flash memory cards.