List of unrecovered flight recorders

Flight data recorder

A flight data recorder is an electronic device employed to record any instructions sent to any electronic systems on an aircraft. It is a device used to record specific aircraft performance parameters...

s (FDRs) and cockpit voice recorder

Cockpit voice recorder

A cockpit voice recorder , often referred to as a "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flight deck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents...

s (CVRs) in commercial airplanes continuously record information and can be immensely helpful to determine the cause of a crash. The deepest a flight recorder has been recovered was the case of South African Airways Flight 295

South African Airways Flight 295

South African Airways Flight 295 was a commercial flight that suffered a catastrophic in-flight fire in the cargo area and crashed into the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius on 28 November 1987, killing everyone on board...

, where the cockpit voice recorder was recovered 16000 feet (4,876.8 m) under the ocean. However, there are many cases where recovered recorders did not definitively identify the cause of a crash. Recorders may be recovered, but too damaged to read or have blanks, like in TWA Flight 800

TWA Flight 800

Trans World Airlines Flight 800 , a Boeing 747-131, exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, at about 20:31 EDT, 12 minutes after takeoff, killing all 230 persons on board. At the time, it was the second-deadliest U.S...

or Swissair Flight 111

Swissair Flight 111

Swissair Flight 111 was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland...

, after power is cut off.

List of unrecovered flight recorders

Date of crash	Flight No.	Airline	Plane type	Presumed location	Notes
1965-08-16	389 United Airlines Flight 389 United Airlines Flight 389 was a scheduled flight from LaGuardia Airport, New York City, New York, to O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois. On August 16, 1965, at approximately 21:21 EST, the Boeing 727 crashed into Lake Michigan east of Fort Sheridan, near Lake Forest, while descending...	United Airlines United Airlines United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...	Boeing 727 Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, narrow-body, three-engine, T-tailed commercial jet airliner, manufactured by Boeing. The Boeing 727 first flew in 1963, and for over a decade more were built per year than any other jet airliner. When production ended in 1984 a total of 1,832 aircraft had been produced... -22	Lake Michigan, off Chicago, Illinois	Resting in 76 metres (249.3 ft) of water; FDR recording media never found
1973-07-22	816 Pan Am Flight 816 Pan Am flight 816 was an international flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to Los Angeles, United States, via Tahiti, French Polynesia....	Pan American World Airways Pan American World Airways Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...	Boeing 707 Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on... -321B	Pacific Ocean, off Papeete Papeete -Sights:* Interactive Google map of Papeete, to discover the 30 major tourist attractions in Papeete downtown.The waterfront esplanadeBougainville Park -Sights:* Interactive Google map of Papeete, to discover the 30 major tourist attractions in Papeete downtown.*The waterfront... , Tahiti Tahiti Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...	Resting in 700 metres (2,296.6 ft) of water; neither recorder found
1975-09-30	240 Malév Flight 240 Malév Flight 240, was a Tupolev Tu-154 tri-motor jetliner of Malév Hungarian Airlines, which was flying on the Budapest to Beirut regular route when it crashed near the Lebanese shoreline on 30 September 1975. All 50 passengers and 10 crew on board died...	Malév	Tupolev Tu-154 Tupolev Tu-154 The Tupolev Tu-154 is a three-engine medium-range narrow-body airliner designed in the mid 1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. As the mainstay 'workhorse' of Soviet and Russian airlines for several decades, it serviced over a sixth of the world's landmass and carried half of all passengers flown...	near the Lebanese shoreline Geography of Lebanon Lebanon stretches along the east side of the Mediterranean Sea, its length almost three times its width. As it stretches from North to South, the width of its terrain becomes narrower. Lebanon's mountainous terrain, proximity to the sea, and strategic location at a crossroads of the world were...	Resting in between 600 metres (1,968.5 ft) and 1000 metres (3,280.8 ft) of water
1979-01-30	cargo	Varig Varig VARIG was the first airline founded in Brazil, in 1927. From 1965 until 1990 it was Brazil's leading and almost only international airline... aircraft PP-VLU PP-VLU PP-VLU was a Varig cargo Boeing 707-323C which took off on 30 January 1979 from Tokyo - Narita to Rio de Janeiro-Galeão via Los Angeles. After an exhibition in Tokyo, 153 of Manabu Mabe's paintings were on board the aircraft. The aircraft went missing over the Pacific Ocean some 30 minutes from...	Boeing 707-323C	in the Pacific Ocean Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World... , around 200 kilometers East Northeast from Tokyo, Japan	The aircraft debris were never located and thus, neither the CVR and FDR was found and the cause of the crash was never determined.
1985-01-01	980 Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 On January 1, 1985, Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 struck Mount Illimani at an altitude of . The flight took off from Silvio Pettirossi International Airport in Asunción, Paraguay and was destined for El Alto International Airport in La Paz, Bolivia...	Eastern Air Lines Eastern Air Lines Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.-History:...	Boeing 727-225 Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, narrow-body, three-engine, T-tailed commercial jet airliner, manufactured by Boeing. The Boeing 727 first flew in 1963, and for over a decade more were built per year than any other jet airliner. When production ended in 1984 a total of 1,832 aircraft had been produced...	25 NM (46 km) from La Paz at the 19,600-ft (5975 m) level of Andean peak Mt. Illimani.	Due to the extreme high altitude and inaccessibility of the accident location, the FDR and CVR were never recovered.
1987-11-28	295 South African Airways Flight 295 South African Airways Flight 295 was a commercial flight that suffered a catastrophic in-flight fire in the cargo area and crashed into the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius on 28 November 1987, killing everyone on board...	South African Airways South African Airways South African Airways is the national flag carrier and largest airline of South Africa, with headquarters in Airways Park on the grounds of OR Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. The airline flies to 36 destinations worldwide from its hub at OR Tambo International...	Boeing 747 Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced... -244B Combi	Indian Ocean, near Mauritius Mauritius Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...	CVR located at 4900 metres (16,076.1 ft); FDR not found.
1987-11-29	858 Korean Air Flight 858 Korean Air Flight 858 was a scheduled international passenger flight between Baghdad, Iraq, and Seoul, South Korea that exploded in mid-air on 29 November 1987 after two North Korean agents planted a bomb in the passenger cabin...	Korean Air Korean Air Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd. , operating as Korean Air, is both the flag carrier and the largest airline of South Korea, with global headquarters located in Seoul, South Korea. Korean Air's international passenger division and related subsidiary cargo division together serve 130 cities in 45...	Boeing 707 Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on... -3B5C	Andaman Sea Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea or Burma Sea is a body of water to the southeast of the Bay of Bengal, south of Burma, west of Thailand and east of the Andaman Islands, India; it is part of the Indian Ocean....	Neither flight recorder was ever found.
1992-10-04	1862 El Al Flight 1862 On 4 October 1992, El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747 cargo plane of the Israeli airline El Al, crashed into the Groeneveen and Klein-Kruitberg flats in the Bijlmermeer neighbourhood of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. For the location in the Bijlmermeer, the crash is known in Dutch as the "Bijlmerramp"...	El Al Israel Airlines	Boeing 747 Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced... -258F	Groeneveen and Klein-Kruitberg flats in the Bijlmermeer Bijlmermeer The Bijlmermeer or colloquially Bijlmer is one of the neighbourhoods that form the Amsterdam Zuidoost borough of Amsterdam, Netherlands. To many people, the Bijlmer designation is used to refer to Amsterdam Zuidoost and Diemen Zuid as a pars pro toto... , Amsterdam Zuidoost Amsterdam Zuidoost Amsterdam-Zuidoost is one of fifteen boroughs of the city of Amsterdam. It consists of four residential areas—Bijlmermeer, Venserpolder, Gaasperdam and Driemond—as well as the Amstel III/Bullewijk Business Park and the ArenA Boulevard area.Amsterdam-Zuidoost has approximately 86,000...	One Black Box was found. The tape was broken in 4 pieces. The last 2:45 minutes were unreadable.
2001-09-11	11 American Airlines Flight 11 American Airlines Flight 11 was American Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental flight from Logan International Airport, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles International Airport, in Los Angeles, California...	American Airlines American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...	Boeing 767 Boeing 767 The Boeing 767 is a mid-size, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It was the manufacturer's first wide-body twinjet and its first airliner with a two-crew glass cockpit. The aircraft features two turbofan engines, a supercritical wing, and a conventional tail... -223ER	North World Trade Center, New York City New York City New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...	Neither flight recorder found, destroyed in the building.
2001-09-11	175 United Airlines Flight 175 United Airlines Flight 175 was United Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental flight, from Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California...	United Airlines United Airlines United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...	Boeing 767-222	South World Trade Center, New York City	Neither flight recorder found, destroyed in the building. See above.
2001-10-04	1812 Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 crashed over the Black Sea on 4 October 2001, en route from Tel Aviv, Israel to Novosibirsk, Russia. The plane, a Soviet-made Tupolev Tu-154, carried an estimated 66 passengers and 12 crew members. No one on board survived...	Siberia Airlines	Tupolev Tu-154 Tupolev Tu-154 The Tupolev Tu-154 is a three-engine medium-range narrow-body airliner designed in the mid 1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. As the mainstay 'workhorse' of Soviet and Russian airlines for several decades, it serviced over a sixth of the world's landmass and carried half of all passengers flown...	Black Sea Black Sea The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...	Neither flight recorder found.

List of unrecovered flight recorders

See also