punanilover

and impact? maybe the terroist said some stuff about who he was working for before the crash

Jus Plain Snoopy

I heard they could handle 18-20 Gs...dunno about heat, tho

Godzilla

there was speculation that if the terrorists were sophisticated enough to turn off the transponder, there's a good chance they might have tripped the breaker for the black box.

A4by4

I thought the black box was Tamper-Proof.. It is mounted in the tail of the plane isn't it??

Mark P

I haven't heard the angle of descent, but they report it as very steep. I'm not sure what forces were on that box in this situation, but looking at the lack of sizeable debris, it would be really surprising if this one survived. As for the others, who knows? I'm sure they are "fire proof" like the safes you can buy at the local dept store, but in heat that melts the metal structure of the WTC, not so sure it would survive here either.

Don't these boxes have transponders in them so they can be found? Or is that a separate device in the plane itself - or are there multiple?

Skydive@AI

They are constructed to withstand forces and temperatures which exceed those which are typical of air disasters. However, the debris feild is atypical. The towers were built to withstand "a direct hit" by a 707, (which is an airliner of the vintage consistent with the era in which the buildings were constructed.) I am of the opinion that the heat generated by combustion of large quantities of jet fuel is what ultimately melted the support members within the towers. I do not believe that there were additional explosives involved, nor to I believe that the impacts themselves could have caused the tower architecture to fail.

If the CVR and FDR boxes are found, they may yeild some data. However, I find it unlikely that the hijackers said or did anything that would indicate anything more than their hatred for our country, or devotion to their cause.

Mark P

also, I think the opposite would be true - they know they are being recorded and thus they only say what they want recorded, which may be nothing, or it may be something related to the reasons behind their actions.

dbtong

not sure which plane or confirmation. heard it on the radio.

Skydive@AI

As far as I know, no transponders were disabled. In fact, I've seen radar tracks from all four of the doomed flights...

What's more, the CVP and FDR units are completely self contained in terms of power and such. They also receive redundant power from the airframe. There are no "breakers" to be tripped, and niether of these units are accessible from the flight deck or cabin.

Think before you speculate.

Godzilla

That's just what I heard from some analyst on TV.