What is a blackbox and how will it help uncover the mystery of MH 370?
Any commercial aeroplane or corporate jet is required to be equipped with a cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder. It is these two items of separate equipment which is commonly referred to as a ‘Black Box.’ While they do nothing to help the plane when it is in the air, both these pieces of equipment are vitally important should the plane crash, as they help crash investigators find out what happened just before the crash.
To help locate the cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder in the aftermath of a plane crash that occurs at sea, each recorder has a device fitted to it known as an Underwater Locator Beacon (ULB). The device is activated as soon as the recorder comes into contact with water and it can transmit from a depth as deep as 14,000 feet. Also, a Black Box is not actually black at all, but bright orange.
The black box is built to be durable and undamageable. All recorders undergo countless tests. To protect the stack of memory boards that store information, black boxes are wrapped in a thin layer of aluminum and a 1-inch layer of high-temperature insulation, and then encased in a corrosion-resistant stainless steel or titanium shell. The black box must be able to withstand an acceleration of 3,400 Gs (3,400 times the force of gravity), which equals an impact velocity of about 310 mph. It must also survive flames up to 2,000 degrees F for one hour, and the beacon should be able to emit a signal once per second while submersed in 20,000 feet of saltwater for 30 days. It is extremely rare for a black box to be destroyed.
Today, the Black Box is still just as vitally important in helping piece together the causes of a plane crash, as seen by the discovery of the Black Box in the Mexico plane crash that killed fourteen, including the interior minister of Mexico on 4th November, 2008.
Similarly, the black box inside Flight MH 370 is crucial in determining what happened to the plane. Theories abound as to what happened to Malaysian airlines Flight MH370. Currently, the two most believed theories are:
1. Hijacking
As Flight MH370 left Malaysian airspace, controllers in Kuala Lumpur were expecting a simple handover to their Vietnamese counterparts. But the switch never happened and experts believe this was the crucial moment when hijackers or the pilots could have struck and changed the Boeing 777’s course. At 1:19 am, co-pilot, Fariq Hamid, told Malaysian air traffic controllers: “All right, good night.” He should have then handed over to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. But two minutes later the jet’s transponder, which gives off radar signals, was disabled.
The plane went dark on civilian radar, and then made a turn westwards back toward Malaysia. Investigators believe someone could have reprogrammed the plane’s flight management system to turn away from its original flight plan.
Former British Airways pilot Stephen Buzdygan said: “If I was going to steal the aeroplane, that would be the point I would do it.”
2. Fire in the plane that caused plane crash
Malaysian officials have confirmed that a consignment of lithium-ion batteries was in the cargo hold of Flight MH370. “These are not regarded as dangerous goods,” said the CEO of Malaysian Airlines, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, “and were packed as recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.”
In the U.S., however, the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Security and Hazardous Materials Safety keeps a list of incidents involving these batteries. They include:
The hands of a passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight burned when spare lithium-ion batteries for a cell phone melted the zip-top bag in which they were carried, breached the passenger’s carry-on bag and produced smoke and flames.
A package of 18 lithium-ion batteries melted through their plastic wrap and set fire to their outer package at the UPS flight center in Louisville, Kentucky. Similarly, a FedEx pilot was taking the jump seat in the cockpit of a flight from Memphis when a lithium-ion battery in a flashlight carried in his backpack caught fire while the airplane was still at the gate.
The black box is an invaluable tool for Air Crash Investigators of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH 370 and will play a major role in finding out what happened and what caused the plane to disappear.
