Small plane crashes into Santanoni Peak

I'm thinking they really cant comment on an ongoing investigation..

beverly said:

This bit of information is interesting. You would think they would have turned it on by now, unless it was damaged.

Click to expand...

Turning it on could alter/damage the data contained within. They will most likely return it to the manufacturer (or a special lab) which will remove the memory chips and attempt to read them in a way which does not alter the data.

The GPS data will only give the flight path, not why they chose/took that flight path. (A certain amount of why can be inferred from the path.)

"Back in the good old days", instruments were lit with incandescent lamps and contained tubes. When (and if) the glass breaks in the crash the hot filaments will burn when oxygen gets to them. By examining the filaments, investigators could tell if they were on at the time of the crash. Nowdays, with all the solid state stuff and LCD panels, there is less evidence to go on.

Doug