Can a black box on a plane be tracked?

With a GPS receiver attached to a black box, only the black box will be able to know its own location. We are able to use GPS for tracking assets becuase those devices transmit the location information received from GPS, using various channels such as GPRS or satellite connectivity.



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There are a handful of cases in which black boxes have not been recovered, and a couple of cases in which the flight data recorder was found but not the cockpit voice recorder, or vice versa.

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Although the black box is not a new device, it still operates with the same principle today. The last 2 hours of conversations in the cockpit, together with the data from the last 25 hours of the aircraft, are recorded by this device.

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Black boxes are equipped with an Underwater Locator Beacon (ULB) which sends out a ping every second for 30 days, if the aircraft crashes into water. ULBs have a battery life of over six years, and can be traced by sonar and audio equipment up to depths of 14,000 feet, and in some cases, 20,000 feet.

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In contrast to their name, black boxes are not box-shaped or black and are painted bright orange to increase visibility. These devices, priced between $10,000 and $15,000 each and weighing roughly 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms), allow investigators to understand the final events preceding an accident.

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Nearly every major commercial air accident that has occurred over water or in remote areas has resulted in a costly and time-consuming recovery, Price said. Unlike the heavy black boxes that sink to the ocean floor along with the rest of the plane, ejectable recorders would float on the water's surface.

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