# What if the Malaysian plane's block box is silent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 6, 2014, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-malaysian-planes-block-box-is-silent/685463 "2014-04-06T08:17:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-malaysian-planes-block-box-is-silent/685463/21 "2014-04-07T18:38:13Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > When we’ve got DVRs that can record over 100 hours of HD video, why is the voice recorder limited to 2 hours? Seems to me it should record everything from liftoff to crash, so why not design it to last as long as the fuel does? IIRC, the black box data is recorded on a steel wire, because this has much greater survivability than any sort of magnetic tape would. I have no idea how flash memory or something like that would compair to this in survivability. As others have mentioned, we have to remember that this is literally a once-in-a-lifetime event. About 99.999999999% of plane crashes don’t need anything close to 2 hours of data to let the authorities figure out what happened. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-malaysian-planes-block-box-is-silent/685463/22 "2014-04-07T19:48:48Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > IIRC, the black box data is recorded on a steel wire, because this has much greater survivability than any sort of magnetic tape would. I have no idea how flash memory or something like that would compair to this in survivability. ISTR that they use solid state memory these days… no cite, except for my memory watching “How It’s Made” on the Science Channel a few months ago when they re-ran the episode about black boxes. Or maybe it was “How Do They Do It?”… one show or the other anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-malaysian-planes-block-box-is-silent/685463/23 "2014-04-07T23:49:06Z")
Yes, they are solid state now. No cite to hand, on the phone, but the wiki article would back it up. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-malaysian-planes-block-box-is-silent/685463/24 "2014-04-08T01:28:49Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Look at it this way: The world sees something like 9 million scheduled flights a year, and in 2012, 2013 and 2014, we’ve seen 27 incidents, none of which were as mysterious as MH 370 (which is one of the 27, BTW). > > With that kind of record, it would hardly pay to increase the cost and capability of the CVRs and FDRs on the planes, since they clearly are adequate for the vast majority of crashes. Indeed, when was the last genuinely mysterious airplane loss? Certainly, if you go back to something like the [Dole Air Race](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dole_Air_Race), there’s plenty of planes which went down in regions outside of our ability to recover and analyze. But since the commercialization of international travel, how far back do you have to go to find something that’s largely or completed unexplained? ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-malaysian-planes-block-box-is-silent/685463/25 "2014-04-08T03:41:10Z")
> [@bump](#): > > With that kind of record, it would hardly pay to increase the cost and capability of the CVRs and FDRs on the planes, since they clearly are adequate for the vast majority of crashes. This might be the first case ever where two hours of recording time won’t be enough. And very likely there won’t be another one for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-malaysian-planes-block-box-is-silent/685463/26 "2014-04-08T05:33:54Z")
Although the current generation CVRs record for 2 hours they are actually only required to record for 30 minutes. If you are wondering why the manufacturers and airlines are willing to pony up for a 2 hour recorder when that is not required but have not been proactive in installing recorders with even longer recording times, the answer would be that the NTSB has been recommending for some time that the requirement be increased to 2 hours. The manufacturers are ensuring that they have CVRs capable of meeting an expected future rule change. This is a cheaper option, long term, than designing to the current standard only to have to refit more capable recorders at a later date. I suspect that if the NTSB had been recommending 10 hour recorders we would probably have them already. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-malaysian-planes-block-box-is-silent/685463/27 "2014-04-08T07:38:01Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > IIRC, the black box data is recorded on a steel wire, because this has much greater survivability than any sort of magnetic tape would. I have no idea how flash memory or something like that would compair to this in survivability. > > As others have mentioned, we have to remember that this is literally a once-in-a-lifetime event. About 99.999999999% of plane crashes don’t need anything close to 2 hours of data to let the authorities figure out what happened. If they’re using solid state memory - is there really a cost / weight difference between two hours and effectively unlimited recording? For Solid State - what other factors would come into it that make limiting the time to two hours any different to fitting something that simply records an entire flight - or even a month’s worth of flights? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-malaysian-planes-block-box-is-silent/685463/28 "2014-04-09T04:24:05Z")
What if it has the crew and passengers doing karaoke? ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-malaysian-planes-block-box-is-silent/685463/29 "2014-04-09T05:47:50Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > What if it has the crew and passengers doing karaoke? Thank you , thank you , thank you for making my day. 🙂 You win the thread! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-malaysian-planes-block-box-is-silent/685463.md?page=1)