AA Flight 5342: What is a black box on a plane? What to know after crash with helicopter

USA Today

30-01-2025

As the recovery operation continued Thursday morning after a commercial airliner collided with an Army helicopter near the nation's capital, federal aviation officials had not yet made a formal announcement about the black boxes on board both aircrafts.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the lead agency handling the deadly crash, is expected to hold a briefing today, a spokesperson for the federal agency told USA TODAY.
The fatal crash took place just before 9 p.m. Wednesday when American Airlines Flight 5342 attempted to land and collided in midair with a Blackhawk trying to land at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)in Arlington, Virginia.
Flight 5342 took off from Wichita, Kansas, at 5:18 p.m., CST and was set to land at DCA at 9:03 p.m. ET, but dropped out of the air on approach at about 8:48 p.m., according to aircraft tracking site FlightAware.
The passenger plane with 64 people aboard then fell into icy waters of the Potomac River. The Blackhawk helicopter carried three people.
All aboard both aircrafts are feared, dead, officials said during Thursday morning news conferences.
What is the the black box, what can it tell us, and how do they work?
Here's what to know:
Watch live:News conference for American Airline deadly plane crash
What is a black box?
A black box is a flight-data recorders that collect information on communications involving pilots in cockpits and how the aircraft systems perform in-flight.
It is designed to be practically indestructible.
​​​Large commercial aircraft and some smaller commercial, corporate, and private aircrafts are required by the Federal Aviation Administration to be equipped with two black boxes, according to the NTSB.
The first, called the Cockpit Voice Recorder, records radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit including pilot's voices and engine noise, according to the Federal agency. The second, called a Flight Data Recorder, monitors parameters such as altitude, airspeed and heading.
The recorders are installed to help reconstruct exactly what happened leading up to a crash.
Where is a black box found on a plane?
A black box is typically found in the aircraft's rear.
Each box, is equipped with an Underwater Locator Beacon in the event of an overwater crash, according to NTSB. Dubbed a "pinger", the device is activated when the recorder is submerged in water, according to a NTSB online fact sheet. "
"It transmits an acoustical signal on 37.5 KHz that can be detected with a special receiver," the sheet reads . "The beacon can transmit from depths down to 14,000 feet."
What happens when a black box is recovered from water?
If a black box is recovered from water, it is immersed in fresh, clean water to prevent deposits such as salt or minerals from drying out within the device, said John Cox, a retired airline captain with former US Airways.
"When the technicians at the laboratory are ready to download the data, they take the recorder out of the freshwater bath, carefully open it and dry any sections that have been exposed to water," according to Cox, who owns aviation safety consulting company, Safety Operating Systems. "They then download the data into special computers that can read the information."
Has the black box on American Airlines Flight 5342 been located
It was not immediately known whether divers had located the black boxes for either AA Flight 5342 or the military's Blackhawk that both crashed.
Once rescue efforts are concluded, the NTSB told USA TODAY, locating the black box will be one of federal officials main priorities.
Contributing: Reuters
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [e-mail] and follow her on X @nataliealund.