[masklinn]

> You're talking about the black box for a airline jet. This thing is supposed to survive plane crashes; not just being dropped a meter off the floor, but smashing into the ground going 100's of meters per second.

Just so everybody understands, here are the specs advertised by Honeywell Aerospace for the type of box on e.g. AF447 (the Air France flight which crashed in 2009):

    Advanced Recorder (AR):
        available as
            Cockpit Voice Recorder only (AR-CVR)
            Flight Data Recorder only (AR-FDR)
            Combined Digital Voice and Data Recorder (AR-DVDR)
        - Underwater Locator Beacon (ULB).
        - voice recording duration: 30, 60, 120 minutes.
        - data recording: 10, 25 hours.
        - Height – 6.1 inch; Width – 4.8 inch; Length – 9.49 inch;
        - weight: 8.8 pounds.
        - designed for data recovery even if subjected to
            * Impact Shock – 3400 G, 6.5 milliseconds
            * Penetration Resistance – 500 lb weight drop from 10 feet
            * Static Crush – 5000 lbs, 5 minutes
            * High Temperature Fire – 1100°C, 60 minutes
            * Low Temperature Fire: 260°C, 10 hours
            * Deep Sea Pressure and Sea Water/Fluids Immersion: 20,000 feet, 30 days

[Already__Taken]

How can something only survive under 20,000 feet for 30 days and not 60, or a year. 30 days is a long time.

[masklinn]

It can and most likely will (the AF447 black box was retrieved after almost 2 years at ~12500ft). That's just the speccing, the warranty if you will.