What would actually destroy a 'black box' flight recorder thing??

Question

just curious. lol

Answer 1

Nothing is indestructible. "Black boxes" or Flight Data/Voice recorders can be destroyed by a heavy enough impact and/or  fire post impact sometimes. The recorders from 9/11 were destroyed (that of course being an extreme case). Although often recovered, sometimes the data is not usable depending upon the impact or contact with water. The NTSB is however very good at salvaging what they can oftentimes from extreme impacts or long term exposure to water.

Answer 2

They are not totally indestructible, as pointed out.  They do not always survive crashes.

You could render one inoperable and the data non-recoverable by setting it on a block of concrete and beating the eternal blinking blue bejulius out of it with a 12 pound sledgehammer.  You will be able to tell by visual inspection when it is done.

If you want to add a little more drama, try some kerosene and a match, especially after you have popped one of the seams in the case.

Of course what I just described was hypothetical, and you would not ever want to actually do it, unless you had bought one for the purpose.  They have very intimidating legal warnings printed on them, and it is a serious federal offense to damage one.

So that's how you could do it, but don't.

Answer 3

with all the artificial things you can do to it in your garage set aside, lets just focus on what a crash might do to destroy it

-severe impact/deceleration. more that 50 Gs. it is designed to survive 40 or so. (its in the back of the acft so usually this is enough)

-crushing. I don't know the exact weight but refer to the other answerer

-severe and prolonged heat. in more than 45 minutes of intense fire, such as one fueled by jet fuel, the black box will melt

-corrosion. if it stays under water for a very long time, corrosion can eat through the box and destroy whats inside. but by then, the homing beacon would've run out of batteries anyways.

-electrical surges. many devices are in place to guard against these things but they can fail. murphy's law dictates that anything that can fail will. so there. mind you, it will destroy the recorder but not the box itself.

Answer 4

A crowbar...a hacksaw...a baseball bat.

They aren't actually indestructible,  just cushioned.  They are tough, yes but certainly not so tough that they could survive an impact at 500mph into the ground without some sort of additional support.  That support is provided by the airframe.  The energy of the crash distorts the frame and is directed away from the FDR so it sustains less impact force than the rest of the plane.

Answer 5

Dividing by zero.