Today I Learned… About Airplane “Black Boxes”

Today I learned about airplane black boxes–or more precisely, flight data and cockpit voice recorders.

After speaking with a couple of aircraft crash investigators who specialize in deep water, I’ve learned a great deal. Most importantly, I learned that the data recorder doesn’t always survive the crash (so no sense using the old comedian’s standby and making the whole plane out of the same material!). Secondly, even if it did survive the crash, investigators are not always able to locate it on the ocean bottom, even if they know where the wreck is.

Also… they aren’t black. They’re orange 🙂