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Mystery Air Crash Black Box Found Sans Memory Part
coondoggie writes "The ongoing undersea search of the Air France Flight 447 wreckage had yielded one of the key items investigators were looking for this week: the flight data recorder. Unfortunately, their hopes for more information about the crash were set back, as the robot subs scouring the ocean floor retrieved the box only to find its memory part missing."
Sorry i need to upgrade for Diablo 3 coming out soon
~~"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." ~~Dennis Miller
Looks like someone forgot to post anonymously. Given your low UID, is it possible that you are the Methusalah of trolls? Traveling from one era to the next, trusty bag of tired memes in one hand, bucket of spam in the other?
I'm sure damaged blackboxes happen all the time—for those who don't feel like RTFAing, it looks pretty beaten up in the photo, and they've got submersibles scouring a rather large region for more pieces still. (The summary's habit of using the word "part" is kind of adorable, in a Simple English Wikipedia sort of way. What is a memory part, anyway? Is this specialized manufacturing jargon (i.e. part numbers) or just weird writing?)
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
Obviously, Barack Obama's birth certificate stating he was born in Kenya was on this plane. When the Jooz realized this, they called up the Illuminati and had them have Gaddafi plant a bomb on the plane. This was a Majestic-12 orchestrated conspiracy to get us involved with Libya to protect our rebellious young people interest, something which has been declining in the past decades because of rainbows in sprinklers and the chem-trails in the sky.
The missing memory chip only confirms that the Greys were there to teleport the chip to their holographic dimension before the passengers disappeared in the Bermuda triangle, only to be transported to Layer-7 in Dulce.
This then confirms that Kennedy was shot by the mafia to protect the Illuminati-Majestic-12 conspiracy. Also, the chip had the location of the nuclear weapons in Iraq.
Obviously.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
There is a technical term for it, but basically it's the actual box on the recorder chasis which stores the data; I'm not sure whether it's magnetic storage or flash memory in this case.
And separation is certainly not unknown, there was a crash a few years back where it also separated and was later found. Odds are this one will be too, but that could take some time if it's buried under other debris.
"Could there have been any sort of sabotage?"
Mischievous squids?
Pull my finger...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
But that all went away when it the article made it clear that all that found was the chasis for the data recorder, and none of the actual black boxes, i.e. crash survivable memory units, have in fact been seen or recovered.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
From the picture I've seen, it looks like the chassis was bent by the impact and that probably caused the memory unit's mounting to break. So the memory unit itself is probably still intact somewhere.
I'm confused. Was the flight data recorder was found, brought to the surface, opened and the memory module was missing (ie not installed), or was the memory module a separate piece of equipment that connects to the flight data recorder and could simply be covered up by other wreckage in the debris field.
The memory module is a unit mounted in the flight recorder and it's clearly missing in the pictures sent back from the sea bed. As I mentioned above, the flight data recorder chassis looks to have bent enough to break the memory unit away from its mounting points, mostly likely when the plane hit the sea. In that case it should be somewhere in the debris field, but probably some distance from the rest of the unit due to differences in shape and density.
I believe it's basically an orange cylinder, so it should show up against the sea bed if it isn't lying under another piece of debris.
"Could there have been any sort of sabotage?"
Mischievous squids?
I smiled.
Our family has a cottage in the middle of nowhere and all the neighbours are nice, but that doesn't stop my urban dwelling brother from obsessively locking his car. I keep asking him if he's worried about the raccoons taking midnight joyrides.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
From the article, it sounds like the flight data recorder has basically been smashed to pieces. This is usually what happens to them; they're really only useful in relatively low-speed accidents.
That's not the case at all. FDRs commonly survive catastrophic high speed accidents. For example, USAir 427 in 1994 crashed in a near vertical nose-down attitude, and pretty much all that was left of that accident was small bits and pieces. The FDR was recovered and was usable. They rolled and went nose down from 6,000 feet, and the last data on the recorder indicated an airspeed of 261 knots (300 mph, or about 135 meters per second), at a 80 nose-down attitude, virtually straight into the ground. If an FDR can survive that, it can survive damn near anything.
To answer everyone's question, all they found is the chassis housing the FDR. It connects to the plane's avionics and does the actual flight data recording, which it then writes to flash memory in a separate memory module. It is only important before the crash. The memory module plugs into this chassis and screws on (you can see the 4 screws on the chassis and the screw holes on the memory module's feet if you click on the pic in the link). During the crash, the two got separated. The memory module itself is the part that's designed to be crash/fire/water-proof, and the locater beacon they were listening for immediately after the crash is attached to the memory module.
All flight data should be backed up on Cloud Storage.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
What if the seabed is orange too?
Then you may be screwed :).
In normal circumstances you'd find it using the pinger signal, but that wasn't detected during the initial search and the battery died a long time ago (it was later detected in an offline analysis of the acoustic data recorded during that search, but that couldn't give an accurate position).
With a UID that low, if he was going to Troll, you'd be left wondering what the hell hominy porridge has to do with ex-vegan stars of melodramatic ballet movies...
I can see the fnords!
Our family has a cottage in the middle of nowhere and all the neighbours are nice, but that doesn't stop my urban dwelling brother from obsessively locking his car. I keep asking him if he's worried about the raccoons taking midnight joyrides.
Haven't you seen raccoons washing their hands in a stream? It's not about being sanitary, it's a guilty conscience combined with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
#DeleteChrome
Is that a technical term?
TFA is Michael Cooney's Layer 8 blog. I'll give Cooney the benefit of the doubt and assume he did the 30 seconds of research necessary to find out the correct term and just assume he misplaced a key memory part.
I can see the fnords!
Habits are most effective when maintained, and insurance companies are less likely to reimburse you if your car wasn't locked.
Our family has a cottage in the middle of nowhere and all the neighbours are nice, but that doesn't stop my urban dwelling brother from obsessively locking his car. I keep asking him if he's worried about the raccoons taking midnight joyrides.
I always lock my car too. I basically promised the insurance company I would, so I do. Your neighbors might be nice, and your neighbors teenage kids might be nice too, but even nice teenage kids with a bit of booze in them can suddenly think that taking an unlocked car for a joy ride is a good idea. And most crimes would be done by non-locals anyway... your nice neighbors might notice them and take a description so you can catch them later, but that doesn't necessarily get your car back. Your brother might just be a creature of habit too - I know I am. If I have to think about locking the car in the city, but not locking it at home, I'll just end up forgetting.
Making fun!
Just because they control the world's reserve currencies through banking, forced income taxes on the people of all developed nations and manipulate the markets of the world, doesn't mean they lurk behind every unexplained phenomenon!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
This post provides some interesting information:
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/5129859/1/#2
Nonsense. The crash was not even likely to be their fault.
Not sure if this is relevant but I once worked on a recording device for FA/18s. The module which stores the data plugs into a slot in the aircraft or an external reader. It is approximately 80*80*30mm and grooved so it can only slide into its slot one way. On the 30*80mm side which sits flush with the surface of the reader there is a hinged lever and a locking catch. To insert the cartridge you push it say 60mm into the slot, then engage the lever with a bar on the reader surface and use leverage to push it the rest of the way. On the opposite side of the cartridge from the lever there is a 25 pin D plug which mates with a socket on the reader (or aircraft). The recording mechanism is hidden though at the time I did this work it must have been streaming tape like a TK50.
I could imagine a cartridge like this popping out of the box which writes the data to it on impact. The cartridge is extremely robust and will be probably sitting on the bottom around there somewhere. Of course the system on the airbus could be totally different from the one I saw.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
"Our family has a cottage in the middle of nowhere and all the neighbours are nice, but that doesn't stop my urban dwelling brother from obsessively locking his car. I keep asking him if he's worried about the raccoons taking midnight joyrides."
Habits die hard. And I'd rather be in the habit of always locking my car, than getting into the habit of leaving it unlocked, and someday having it bite me in the ass when I move back into an urban setting.
Yes, door locks won't prevent a dedicated thief from entering. Same way a lock on an apartment door in a big city won't prevent it. But it will keep the casual assholes out, and that's most people.
You mean it was the scare mongering media who broke into my car and stole my wallet? All these years I figured it was some teenaged punk.
From: http://www51.honeywell.com/aero/common/documents/Flight_Data_Recorder_(SSFDR).pdf
The SSFDR's crash survivable memory unit (CSMU) provides for complete data recovery when subjected
to the crash conditions stipulated in ED-55 and ED-56a:
Impact Shock 3400G, 6.5 milliseconds
Penetration Resistance 500 lb. weight from 10 feet
Static Crush 5000 lbs., 5 minutes
High Temperature Fire 1100C, 30 minutes
Low Temperature Fire 260C, 10 hours (per ED-56a)
Deep Sea Pressure and Sea Water/Fluids Immersion 20,000 feet, 30 days
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
Haven't you seen raccoons washing their hands in a stream? It's not about being sanitary, it's a guilty conscience combined with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Aren't they just washing the grease off their hands so they won't leave any fingerprints?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
a large part is a bit like big portion, well that's what she said.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
If I remember right, my mistaken belief on the location of the FDR(s) was from a few 1980's news reports... So, a bit dated. Back then, the news was filled with them, and they always had "experts" who would babble on about anything, to fill the airtime.
When I fly, I remember the statistics that I have gathered from flights I've been on. 75% take off on time. 98% have the expected flight duration, and 100% have landed in one piece. Screw the FDR, I want the plane to land in one piece (*AND* get to the gate in one piece). I was just flying a couple days ago. We were at the gate, but the jet bridge had not bee completely put in place. I thought about the above video, as I reached for my seatbelt. "Hmmmm, maybe I should leave my seatbelt on."
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
One of my favorite quotes is...
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
- Robert A. Heinlein
When flying, I do pay attention to where the exits are. I also go beyond that, and look at where my "assets" are in the event of an emergency. Who looks strong and can follow instructions. It doesn't matter if it's a hijacking, or a plane crash, you will likely need those assets. And ya, the guy who feels it's appropriate to put his laptop on his lap, and bag at his feet, it's still wrong.
I was berated by a flight attendant for having "luggage" on my feet. Turned out it was just my jacket, while I was buckling my seatbelt. Once she saw that's all it was, she was fine with it. I was in snow country, so if we had a failed aborted takeoff (i.e., plane runs off the runway), having my jacket in hand would be nice. I learned in boot camp, sleeping in your underwear may be comfortable until they call a fire drill in the middle of the night when it's around freezing outside. I fell for it once. From then on, I slept dressed. Oddly enough, I was one of few who figured it out. About 2% of the platoon prepared. The rest froze their asses off.
My seatbelt stays buckled from before we push off, until after the jet bridge is in place. My cell is firmly on my hip, and my ID is in my pocket. The only time it comes off is if I have to use the restroom, which I usually take care of before boarding.
I plan ahead. Most don't. Oddly enough, in a disaster, people look to a leader, and in something like an aircraft incident, the implied leaders (flight crew) may not be available. The front of an aircraft may be the least survivable location, depending on the incident. I don't want to be the leader, but a group of survivors will need one or there will be chaos.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.