Why does it take half a year to decode an airplane’s black box?

Question

In light of the recent plane crash in Pakistan, reports suggest that it will take 6-7 months to decode the black box.
The company that made the black box surely knows how to decrypt their encryption, so why would it take so long?
Also, assuming the encyrption is super-complicated, what sensitive data would warrant such encryption? Is it just voice recordings, or something more?

In: Technology

Answer 1

It depends on the type of aircraft and the operator but usually there are two “black boxes” — one is the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) and the other is the FDR (flight data recorder). The FDR records panel settings, alarms, fuel flow, and similar. If they are damaged in a crash it can be difficult to extract the information. Sometimes it requires the expertise of the regional transportation safety board and sometimes it even requires the original manufacturers to extract meaningful information. All of this needs to be methodically analyzed in an attempt to understand what happened leading up to, during, and sometimes even after a crash. Sometimes it’s obvious and sometimes its a major puzzle.