[livius]

Not that well. When Air France 441 went down off the Latin American coast, nobody had any idea of what had happened to it.

[6AL-4V]

The A-330 that went into the ocean was transmitting data. Airplanes have two black boxes that are actually orange. A CVR, cockpit voice recorder and a FDR, flight data recorder. That both have pingers for locating. FDR’s are sometimes pulled after an incident, like a tailstrike or an airplane that departs the runway. The more modern the aircraft, the more data captured. This data is also downlinked via ACARS periodically throughout the flight on 777’s and 330’s. ACARS sends info over one of the VHF radios.

[diogenes ghost]

"When Air France 441 went down off the Latin American coast, nobody had any idea of what had happened to it."

Well, it was AF447, not AF441.

And they were pretty sure what had happened right away.

It seems as though few on this forum are aware of ACARS, and it's capabilities.

[B4Ranch]

Air France 441 was flown into the water because the entire crew was inexperienced with proper handling techniques.