What is a Black Box/Flight Recorder?

Why in News:

• Search teams retrieved the flight data and cockpit voice recorders of a passenger plane that plummeted into a gorge on approach to a new airport in the foothills of the Himalayas, officials said, as investigators looked for the cause of Nepal’s deadliest plane crash in 30 years.

What is a Black Box?

• A flight recorder, byname black box, is an instrument that records the performance and condition of an aircraft in flight.
• Governmental regulatory agencies require these devices on commercial aircraft to make possible the analysis of crashes or other unusual occurrences.
• A black box refers to two pieces of equipment together – the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR).
• Together, they provide investigators the data needed to identify what led to a flight crash.
• Flight Data Recorder(FDR):
• The FDR records many variables, not only basic aircraft conditions such as airspeed, altitude, heading, vertical acceleration, and pitch but also hundreds of individual instrument readings and internal environmental conditions that can help narrow down a flight's path and what may have gone wrong in its last moments.
• FDRs are also made to survive depths over 6,000 meters underwater, while still relaying signals.
• Cockpit Voice Recorder:
• The CVR records verbal communication between crew members within the aircraft’s cockpit as well as voice transmissions by radio.
• Aircraft sounds audible in the cockpit are also caught on the recorder.
• Flight recorders are commonly carried in the tail of the aircraft, which is usually the structure that is subject to the least impact in the event of a crash.
• In spite of the popular name black box, flight recorders are painted a highly visible vermilion color known as “international orange".