Robots Find Wreckage of AF447 148
Last week we reported on an army of robots searching for Air France 447 over a nearly 4,000 sq mile patch of the Atlantic ocean. Today
mriya3 noted that "BEA, the French air accident investigation office, reports that the wreckage of Air France flight 447 has been found. The plane, an Airbus A330, crashed June 1, 2009 while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Investigators hope to find the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. A press conference will be held today."
Re:will there be data? (Score:5, Informative)
The flight recorder box is made to withstand deep sea pressure according to this article [wikipedia.org].
Re:will there be data? (Score:4, Informative)
The classic ones, at any rate, are well sealed and record magnetically onto loop of stainless steel wire. Seriously retro in terms of data density; and you don't just plug it into the nearest USB port(which is why many aircraft also have flight data recorders designed for non-emergency use, which are much less survivable; but much more convenient for routine diagnostics); but anything not involving serious corrosion or an excursion above the Curie temperature of the recording loop should be pretty much irrelevant...
Re:will there be data? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=33&pagetype=65&appid=11&mode=detail&id=1229 [caa.co.uk]
The Cockpit Voice Recorder has similar requirements.
Its unlikely that after this time the FDR nor the CVR are still sealed.
Re:get ready for pictures of hagfish on a plane (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.whaletimes.org/hagfish.htm [whaletimes.org]
'Hagfish have been seen as deep as 16,405 feet (5000 m)'
do not doubt cthulhu's minions
even worse:
'Looking closer, one might discover an alarming sight: Those dead organisms resting on the deep sea floor are actually pulsating! What could cause such movements? Usually, it's a passel of scavenging hagfish feeding on the carcasses from the inside out.'
http://www.jyi.org/volumes/volume5/issue7/features/lee.html [jyi.org]
I would spare relatives the idea that human bodies would be found pulsating from within as they are consumed by hagfish. hagfish are the fate of all bodies that go to the deep. i don't want to know the details
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/basalfish/myxini.html [berkeley.edu]
'The adjective which best describes the Myxini is "Lovecraftian".'
Re:will there be data? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:will there be data? (Score:3, Informative)
South African Airways Flight 295 had it's CVR recovered from 4,900 meters of water just over 2 years since the crash. They were able to read the data from it, although in the aforementioned case the fire stopped the CVR before the crash.
Photos from a Brazilian news site (Score:4, Informative)
Re:will there be data? (Score:3, Informative)
And stainless steel wire which is reactive as all get-out and has to be kept in a gas atmosphere is going to fare better? You may have a little chance with the wire recorded, but I wish you the best of luck with it!
--TSP