'Black boxes' in Buffalo crash are on way to DC

news.yahoo.com ^ | Feb 13, 2009 | John Wawrow

[neverdem]

Associated Press

CLARENCE, N.Y. – Investigators have recovered the two "black boxes" from the burned-out wreckage of a plane that crashed near Buffalo and killed 50 people.

Spokesman Keith Holloway of the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday that the flight data and cockpit voice recorders have already been sent to Washington for examination...

[neverdem]

It looks like any suffering of the victims was mercifully short. Their families have my prayers and sincere condolences.

[cripplecreek]

Does anyone know if the flight recorders are installed in the tail of the plane or something? The pictures I saw showed them in pristine condition.

[neverdem]

some more details

[acoulterfan]

“Does anyone know if the flight recorders are installed in the tail of the plane or something? The pictures I saw showed them in pristine condition.”

As Nancy Grace would say...........”GOOD QUESTTION”

[Sarah Barracuda]

I read a partial victims list on one of the Buffalo News web sites, so sad, an entire family died, all from New Jersey, a mother, father, their 12 year old son and the mother’s sister. So sad, my sympathies to everyone on board and all those left behind to grieve

[ZOOKER]

Just like the Wellstone crash, I guess.

Low and slow in icing conditions.

[neverdem]

Does anyone know if the flight recorders are installed in the tail of the plane or something?

My impression was that they were housed in a vault like container near the rest of the controls, pilot & copilot.

Flight data recorders (FDRs) record the readings of instruments and positions of the aircraft's control surfaces over time. They are contained in black boxes that are designed to survive the worst crashes and, like the cockpit voice recorders, are recovered after crashes in order to reconstruct events.

[Herodes]

The recorders are housed in what is referred to as “indestructable black boxes”. Makes you wonder...why don’t they build the airplanes out of the same material they use for the black boxes?

[The Mayor]

They were recovered and they have released some data already from them. Check out http://wben.com they have everything there and have been on top of this since it happened.

[cripplecreek]

Makes you wonder...why don’t they build the airplanes out of the same material they use for the black boxes?

Probably weight issues. It wouldn't really matter though. You might make a plane that can bounce but the human body can't take it.

[Retired Chemist]

Greta just aired an NTSB member who gave info as to what was on the data and voice recorders. The pilot and co-pilot talked about significant icing on the windshield and wings.

[QBFimi]

>> Does anyone know if the flight recorders are installed in the tail of the plane or something? The pictures I saw showed them in pristine condition.

Most data recorders and voice recorders are installed in the upper part of the aft fuselage just forward of the vertical fin. That area is most likely to survive a crash.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

I don’t recall if any of the recorders were ever recovered at the WTC. Anyone remember?

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[QBFimi]

>> I don’t recall if any of the recorders were ever recovered at the WTC. Anyone remember?

The Gummn’t was pretty quiet about that one; I don’t know if they were or not. With UA 93 in Pennsylvania, the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) was played at a trial. The next most survivable recorder would have been AA at the Pentagon. Flight data recorders and voice recorders are designed to survive “normal” crashes. Flown at high speed into a building and buried under billions of tons of rubble is something else again.