Investigators recover missing memory module from Air France Flight 447

By Linda Blachly | May 2, 2011

Photo: Courtesy, BEA.

French Air Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA) on Sunday confirmed the investigation team searching for wreckage of the Air France Flight 447 located and identified the memory module of the flight data recorder at 10 a.m. UTC. “It was back aboard the ship Ile de Sein by the robot Remora 6000 at 16:40 UTC,” BEA said in a statement, which included a photograph of the FDR, manufactured by Honeywell.

AF-KLM CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said in a statement Sunday, “This new step in the investigation is very significant as it may provide additional information as to the causes of this accident that remain unexplained to this day.”

The AF Airbus A330 crashed into the Atlantic while en route between Rio de Janeiro and Paris-Charles de Gaulle on June 1, 2009, killing all 228 passengers and crew on board.

Investigators located the aircraft’s FDR on April 28; however, it was missing the memory module that stores crucial information (ATW Daily News, April 28). The first operational dive began April 26 using the Remora 6000 to continue the analysis and interpretation of photos taken during the previous search for the wreckage in early April.

“We hope that the BEA, in charge of the technical investigation, will be able to provide answers to questions that relatives of the victims, Air France and the entire airline industry have been asking for nearly two years as to why this tragic accident occurred,” said Gourgeon.

Discuss this news 16

01 May20:28

THE FLIGHT DATA RECORDER IS

By KRASHKOWALSKI

THE FLIGHT DATA RECORDER IS ORANGE AND CYLINDRICAL IN SHAPE.

WHY THEN, DOES THE ... NEWS MEDIA INSIST ON CALLING IT A "BLACK BOX"???? ...

01 May20:41

This is excellent news!. It

By 744/777 GRND ENG

This is excellent news!. It does not bring those back who lost their lives, but hopefully it will prevent something like this happening again. I commend those who persisted in this search.

01 May21:40

Wow! After I read the memory

By Anonymous

Wow! After I read the memory module was missing form the FDR I thought never in a million years will they find it.

I hope the data is usable.

01 May23:11

The FDR and CVR (cockpit

By Anonymous

The FDR and CVR (cockpit voice recorder) have always been referred to as 'black boxes' because they are sealed and impenetrable with valuable secrets hidden inside, and as a result, metaphorically 'black'--not unlike the way the military refers to secret operations as 'black ops'. They are (and have always been) painted blaze orange to make them stand out at a crash site, and easier for accident investigators to locate.

02 May07:06

In the electronics bay of all

By Dave

In the electronics bay of all aircraft, generally in the forward section of commercial aircraft, reside the components that provide communication, navigation and all other items electrical in nature, necessary for systems operation. They are rectangular in shape, and all painted black, hence "Black boxes." It's an old aviation term. The commenter above is correct about the color difference of the FDR, but the location is far aft, in the tail section, because of survivability issues. Its' importance is critical in investigations.
I agree that the press is usually ignorant about aviation, but in this case they are using correct terminology.

02 May09:26

I'm still not clear on how

By Robert Moriyama

I'm still not clear on how the memory module (which looks fairly intact) got separated from the rest of the Flight Data Recorder. Presumably the 'black boxes' are designed to maintain their structural integrity (i.e., not eject core components) under the most extreme imaginable conditions. (Now if Air France or Airbus or both wanted to introduce fake data, this would be the way to do it. (Cue music from old Hitchcock movie, mashed up with X-Files theme.))

02 May10:32

They should make the entire

By Anonymous

They should make the entire aircraft out of black box material.

02 May12:35

If they did make the

By Anonymous

If they did make the aircraft out of black box material the aircraft would be extremely to heavy to fly

02 May15:08

Read my blog post titled "The

By mrknowitall777

Read my blog post titled "The Vacuum Salesman and the Black Box" and you will know why they are called "black boxes" Here's the link

http://web.me.com/jblaszczak/Flying_the_Backside/Blog/Blog.html

Hope you enjoy it. Leave a comment.

02 May16:43

Good question!! Maybe it was

By Jim MacFarlane

Good question!! Maybe it was once black. When I was in ground school 1967 Northeast Airlines Boston another student went to a B727 parked at Logan to look for a black box in the tail section
and the next day he commented in class that the black box is not black, it is red !! Northeast Airlines merged with Delta 1971 era.

02 May16:45

Why not show it. It is a

By Jim MacFarlane

Why not show it. It is a trrue story...

02 May16:50

I pre flighted B727s for

By Jim MacFarlane

I pre flighted B727s for years and I never found
a black box flt recorder or black box voice
recorder. They were alwaysw red !!

02 May17:40

Let's hope GPS information

By Tester

Let's hope GPS information can be accessed on the flight deck as a back-up system. Their apparent loss of pitot tube data by icing should make this a no-brainer?! Time will tell.

02 May19:50

Hey Krash, "Black Box" is a

By HvyDvr

Hey Krash, "Black Box" is a whole lot darker, luring and mysterious the flourescent big round tube!!!

02 May20:56

All avionic line maintenance

By Mikeinoz

All avionic line maintenance (rotable) components, like the DFDR, have a manufacturers part number and an individual serial number. Where the main 'black box' is made up of a series of modules, like the DFDR, these modules are also identified by manufacturers part number and serial number. As it is likely that the memory module will be sent back to Honeywell, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), for readout and analysis, there is no possible way that Airbus or Air France could, as you seem to suggest, introduce fake data and indeed why would they. These companies need to determine more so than anyone what caused this accident and indeed both have spent considerable monies funding the finding of the wreckage.

03 May04:00

Quite agree with you. Even if

By Another Anonymous

Quite agree with you.
Even if Air France and partners from Airbus have an extensive repair capability for any kind of components, including avionics, only a few have the capability to "repair" FDR/CVR. 1st It is not the type of equipment that will be replaced frequently, and 2nd the manufacturer of such equipment (e.g.Honeywell) has several approved repair stations in the world.
Usually, any FDR/CVR that should be repaired /tested/overhauled is sent to the manufacturer's station.
In case of accident however, Authorities do have the capability (labs) to strip the equiment and proceed to data recovery and further analysis, obviously with participation of the recorder manufacturer but also with Airbus...