This gives the world hope that data contained in the “black box” will provide more clues to what went wrong to bring down the plane almost two years ago. It would be unfortunate if the device was damaged by the obviously severe impact which severed four fasteners or by the pressure of water 4km deep.
There is another recorder that might be recovered from the cockpit with additional information. We wait expectantly.
Click on the image to read the BEA’s press release.
No doubt, closure for grieving families and friends is important but also prevention of future tragedies. I have read many accounts of the aerodynamics of these high-flying airliners moving in a narrow window between super-sonic failure and stalling. The instrumentation has to have backups for the backups. Failure is not an option. Standard procedure for loss of instrumentation is to put the throttle at about 75% and pray. In the dark, in a storm, without instrumentation, this situation is a gamble and not the way airlines normally operate.
It would be a relief to have this tragic mystery solved.