Air France jet missing off Brazil coast

Well, some do, some don't. Anyways, some commercial aircraft are bound to crash, some aren't. Black boxes are around to make more belong to the second category.

Plus, it would not be able to cover the last seconds of a flight. Which are often times the most important, to find out what happened.

Beacon. Twit.
Besides, what if the fuselage is so deep underwater, it doesn't really help you that the flight recorder is there with it, too?

There's a credit crunch on, jobless figures are on the up - let's employ some secretaries from failed commercial banks to sit on aircraft taking notes, in short hand. Equip 'em with mobile phones, parachutes and a copy of 'Heat' and when it all goes tits up, they can bail out and fill us in on all the gossip about Julie in accounts getting caught getting fingered by John from buying and also, after that vital bit of info, let us know what happened to the plane. Genius.

John's messing around with Julie again?

Carol's not gonna like that.

It's all lies. I never so much as touched Julie. Except at the xmas party in 2007 but that doesn't count.

I have spotted the flaw in Jimbo's plan:

Do you seriously think any of those chicks are actually capable of short hand?

Come on Dave, you and I both know that John and Julie can't leave each other alone. It's John's wife I feel sorry for.

As to the Xmas party, you as well? Christ JE, that's at least 5 of us now. That hotel room should have had a revolving door...

Genie, have you considered that the airline companies should simply make the entire plane out of whatever they build the indestructible black boxes out of?

It was only a matter of time.

I tell ya Jimbo, the girls in that hotel in wandsworth with the numbers on their names.

It's funny how the missus always looks the bleedin same.

Well, if you know which ones those might be, let us know. I'd rather not be on one of those that is "bound to crash".

Yeah... old joke, but I consider it pretty relevant. These crashes are amazing, the way all the arm-chair safety experts suddenly throw all cost and practicality considerations out the window during these discussions...

Before returning to their usual habit of booking the cheapest flights they can and driving non-Volvo brand cars

I drive a Volvo and fly BA.

Didn't stop me crashing my motorbike on Monday.

Let me add some info here.

I know of one large military transport plane that has an ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter) that is located at the top of the tail. It will eject automatically if certain g-limits are reached. It is not a 'Black Box", it will just float while transmitting on the emergency frequency thereby allowing rescue crews to locate it and the airplane.

This solution was developed in the 60's. However, thank goodness, it has never been needed.

Why isn't it correct, have you seen them crash when they are already on the ground??