Has a black box ever been destroyed?

Has a black box ever been destroyed? 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. Rarely, a recorder is recovered but blank or too damaged to read.



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The black box's orange exterior typically sports reflective decals and the command “do not open.” It can be opened, but doing so is left to authorities independent of the airlines, to ensure the memory is not compromised.

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An aircraft actually has two black boxes. One is a flight data recorder, which stores information on specific parameters such as flight control and engine performance. The second is a cockpit voice recorder, which records background sound and conversations between crew members and air traffic control.

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Answer: If a flight data recorder is recovered from the water, it is submerged in fresh, clean water to prevent deposits such as salt or minerals from drying out within the device.

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The greatest depth from which a flight recorder has been recovered is 16,000 feet (4,900 m), for the CVR of South African Airways Flight 295.

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