A computer implemented method performed by a vehicle monitoring system for automatically obtaining vehicle data, wherein the vehicle is an aircraft, the computer implemented method comprising: monitoring the aircraft for events over a wireless interface; responsive to receiving an event sent by the aircraft over the wireless interface when the aircraft is in flight, automatically determining whether additional vehicle data is needed for the event based on a policy; wherein the additional vehicle data comprises transient data that is present only temporarily within a data processing system or a storage device of the aircraft, and wherein the policy includes at least a set of rules or data used to identify whether the additional vehicle data is required to process the event, the policy identifying the type of additional vehicle data; responsive to a determination that additional vehicle data is needed, sending a request for the additional vehicle data including transient data over the wireless interface to the aircraft; and responsive to receiving the additional vehicle data over the wireless interface from the aircraft, storing the additional vehicle data including transient data; further comprising: analyzing the additional vehicle data stored after receiving the additional vehicle data from the aircraft in flight to form an analysis; identifying a set of fault conditions using the analysis while the aircraft is in flight; generating an alert and a set of recommendations in response to identifying the set of fault conditions, wherein the alert identifies the fault condition and the recommendation identifies maintenance operations with respect to the fault condition; sending the alert identifying the fault conditions to a maintenance operator for performing maintenance on the aircraft. monitoring the aircraft for events over a wireless interface; responsive to receiving an event sent by the aircraft over the wireless interface when the aircraft is in flight, automatically determining whether additional vehicle data is needed for the event based on a policy; wherein the additional vehicle data comprises transient data that is present only temporarily within a data processing system or a storage device of the aircraft, and wherein the policy includes at least a set of rules or data used to identify whether the additional vehicle data is required to process the event, the policy identifying the type of additional vehicle data; responsive to a determination that additional vehicle data is needed, sending a request for the additional vehicle data including transient data over the wireless interface to the aircraft; and responsive to receiving the additional vehicle data over the wireless interface from the aircraft, storing the additional vehicle data including transient data; further comprising: analyzing the additional vehicle data stored after receiving the additional vehicle data from the aircraft in flight to form an analysis; identifying a set of fault conditions using the analysis while the aircraft is in flight; generating an alert and a set of recommendations in response to identifying the set of fault conditions, wherein the alert identifies the fault condition and the recommendation identifies maintenance operations with respect to the fault condition; sending the alert identifying the fault conditions to a maintenance operator for performing maintenance on the aircraft. analyzing the additional vehicle data stored after receiving the additional vehicle data from the aircraft in flight to form an analysis; identifying a set of fault conditions using the analysis while the aircraft is in flight; generating an alert and a set of recommendations in response to identifying the set of fault conditions, wherein the alert identifies the fault condition and the recommendation identifies maintenance operations with respect to the fault condition; sending the alert identifying the fault conditions to a maintenance operator for performing maintenance on the aircraft.