Example: Lemmy Federated Airlines Flight 360 crashes with no survivors. Now the Lemmy Federation Air Crash Investigation Bureau finds the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit voice recorder, and they take those boxes aboard Lemmy Investigation Bureau Airfleet Flight 180 back to the investigation headquarters for analysis. This flight also crashes with no survivors. What happens now? Will the black boxes of Flight 360 still be readable? Also, what were the odds of this scenario happening?
Sorry I couldn’t sleep and had to get this question out of my head.
According to the National Safety Council there are “too few deaths to calculate odds”. (source). So, I’m pretty sure we can call the probability of two extremely-rare events happening independently in succession as near to nothing as makes no odds.
Also, modern combined units (sometimes called CVDRs) are built to withstand multiple impacts, and their storage medium is solid state. It is highly likely that, in the event of this near-impossible scenario, the recorder could be recovered again.
Cockpit voice recorders are designed to survive catastrophic plane crashes. They are incredibly durable.
This isn’t due to airbags or crumple zones, or anything that would be used up in the first crash. If it can survive the first crash it will survive the second.
I am not an expert, but I don’t think there’s a “good for one crash” stamp or anything on the recorders, so I’d imagine that since they’re made as indestructible as possible, they could survive multiple plane crashes
What do you mean “what happens”?
Either the CVR and FDR survive or they don’t and the final report is written without them. Neither are indestructible and they fail or are unrecoverable in a fraction of cases.
Yes, a piece of hand luggage designed to survive a plane crash will survive a plane crash.
Kinda like how many times can you send a sub to the bottom of the ocean before it doesn’t return?