--- title: What's Inside a Black Box? | TIME description: Here's look at all the data contained in a so-called black box. canonical: https://time.com/video/Pg3GIKd9/ og:title: What's Inside a Black Box? og:description: Here's look at all the data contained in a so-called black box. og:url: https://time.com/video/Pg3GIKd9/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Pg3GIKd9/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What's Inside a Black Box? twitter:description: Here's look at all the data contained in a so-called black box. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Pg3GIKd9/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # What's Inside a Black Box? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: What's Inside a Black Box? [Watch (HLS stream): What's Inside a Black Box?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Pg3GIKd9.m3u8) (2:17)  _Published 2014-04-05. Here's look at all the data contained in a so-called black box._ --- Jul 27, 2023 4:22 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Rebels Turn Over MH17 Black Boxes, Bodies](/video/UFdn4Oi8/) ### Rebels Turn Over MH17 Black Boxes, Bodies [Watch: Black Boxes Handed Over](/video/7XfalWjA/) ### Watch: Black Boxes Handed Over [MH370: How The Search for The Black Box Is Conducted](/video/arRZREt2/) ### MH370: How The Search for The Black Box Is Conducted --- ## Transcript Crash protected and shock mounted. This is what investigators will see once the black boxes for MH370 are found and data from the memory downloaded for analysis. When pull the data up on the screen we'll see the data in a tabular format, in graphical format. Black boxes containing hundreds of data points, or parameters, about the flight's movement, pilot maneuvers, speed, and altitude. All displayed with a series of graphs. Ever flight data recorder records the data in binary values. It's a series of ones and zeroes. In order for humans to understand that, we need to convert it into engineering units. And engineering units simply mean feet for altitude, air speed is recorded in knots. It's through graphs like these that we'll learn if someone on board deliberately nose- dived the aircraft, if there was a pilot error or a mechanical problem. In an engine or mechanical failure, there'd be all kinds of indications. They'd be able to determine which engine turned off first. If it was because of fuel starvation they would know that versus if it would have been intentionally cut off. This line represents the plane's altitude. If Flight MH370 suddenly dropped to a lower altitude mid- flight, here's where we'd see a change, and if someone on board deliberately altered the flight path, we'll see this line start to dip or rise depending on the direction. I think one of the important things that people will be looking at is who was in control of the aircraft, so when we look at the data from the flight data recorder you can see if the inputs were coming from the autopilot or the left seat or the right seat. In other words the pilot or the co- pilot. Technicians can also use latitude or longitude positions here to pinpoint where the plane was located at any point during flight. And although the memory chips on flight data recorders are rarely ever damaged, airlines still need to perform regular flight data recorder maintenance and pre- flight testing to ensure the black boxes are up to par. The biggest challenge now is to locate them before the batteries die. Those pingers that are out there could be already dead. To find that pinger in those trenches, or to find it after the pinger stopped in those trenches is going to be extremely difficult. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"What's Inside a Black Box?","description":"Here's look at all the data contained in a so-called black box.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Pg3GIKd9/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-04-05T21:30:37.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Pg3GIKd9.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/Pg3GIKd9/","duration":"PT2M17S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/Pg3GIKd9/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```