On 30th November 2011, I sent a
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the United States National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) through their online request web page concerning the Flight Data Recorder (FDR
commonly called "black box") files for nine incidents. I received a CDROM containing FDR files for
two of the nine incidents.
My aim was to get copies of the original FDR files from incidents investigated by the NTSB that were read from Loral Fairchild Model F-2100 FDRs. The original FDR file from American Airlines Flight 77 (AAL77) was read from a Loral Fairchild Model F-2100 FDR but had problems which caused the NTSB to not completely decode the FDR file. I was interested in finding out whether similar problems with files read from this make and model of FDR had affected other NTSB investigations. It turned out that the two incidents for which I received files were not affected.
The two FDR files that I received from the NTSB are included with these six FDR files that I have checked for problems.
The file DCA02MA001_AAL587_ALL.fdr would appear to be from the NTSB Accident ID DCA02MA001 regarding the incident NTSB Number NTSB/AAR-04/04 - American Airlines Flight 587, Airbus Industrie A300-605R, Registration Number N14053, Belle Harbor, New York, November 12, 2001.
The file DCA07MA310_AALengOct07.fdr would appear to be from the NTSB Accident ID DCA07MA310 regarding the incident NTSB Number NTSB/AAR-09/03 - American Airlines Flight 1400, McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82, Registration Number N454AA, St. Louis, Missouri, September 28, 2007.
An ISO image of the entire CDROM I received from the NTSB is available here.
Here is the request I sent:
I received the CDROM and the following letter in the mail from the NTSB:
The CDROM has the following files on it:
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My aim was to get copies of the original FDR files from incidents investigated by the NTSB that were read from Loral Fairchild Model F-2100 FDRs. The original FDR file from American Airlines Flight 77 (AAL77) was read from a Loral Fairchild Model F-2100 FDR but had problems which caused the NTSB to not completely decode the FDR file. I was interested in finding out whether similar problems with files read from this make and model of FDR had affected other NTSB investigations. It turned out that the two incidents for which I received files were not affected.
The two FDR files that I received from the NTSB are included with these six FDR files that I have checked for problems.
The file DCA02MA001_AAL587_ALL.fdr would appear to be from the NTSB Accident ID DCA02MA001 regarding the incident NTSB Number NTSB/AAR-04/04 - American Airlines Flight 587, Airbus Industrie A300-605R, Registration Number N14053, Belle Harbor, New York, November 12, 2001.
The file DCA07MA310_AALengOct07.fdr would appear to be from the NTSB Accident ID DCA07MA310 regarding the incident NTSB Number NTSB/AAR-09/03 - American Airlines Flight 1400, McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82, Registration Number N454AA, St. Louis, Missouri, September 28, 2007.
An ISO image of the entire CDROM I received from the NTSB is available here.
Here is the request I sent:
| Thank you for your response to my
previous FOIA request numbers 2009-00078 and FOIA-2011-00215. There is a file named American 77.fdr which was included on the CDROM the NTSB sent to me in response to my FOIA request number 2009-00078. This file was read from the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) which was examined in the investigation NTSB Number DCA01MA064 which was the crash in Arlington, Virginia on September 11, 2001 of the B-757-200 aircraft registration number N644AA operated by American Airlines. I am requesting the files read from the FDRs from other incidents, similar to the American 77.fdr file read from the FDR in the above mentioned incident. I request the files read from the FDRs for the following nine incidents: NTSB Number NTSB/AAR-01/02 - American Airlines Flight 1420, McDonnell Douglas MD-82, Registration Number N215AA, Little Rock, Arkansas, June 1, 1999. NTSB Number NTSB/AAR-04/04 - American Airlines Flight 587, Airbus Industrie A300-605R, Registration Number N14053, Belle Harbor, New York, November 12, 2001. NTSB Number NTSB/AAR-08/02 - Pinnacle Airlines Flight 4712, Bombardier/Canadair Regional Jet CL600-2B19, Registration Number N8905F, Traverse City, Michigan, April 12, 2007. NTSB Number NTSB/AAR-09/03 - American Airlines Flight 1400, McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82, Registration Number N454AA, St. Louis, Missouri, September 28, 2007. NTSB Number NTSB/AAR-10/04 - Continental Airlines Flight 1404, Boeing 737-500, Registration Number N18611, Denver, Colorado, December 20, 2008. NTSB Number NTSB/AAR-11/02 - Empire Airlines Flight 8284, Avions de Transport Régional, Aerospatiale Alenia ATR 42-320, Registration Number N902FX, Lubbock, Texas, January 27, 2009. NTSB Number DCA08FA018 - Air Wisconsin Flight 3758, Bombardier CL600-2B19, Registration Number N470ZW, Providence, Rhode Island, December 16, 2007. NTSB Number CHI08IA292 - American Airlines Flight 268, Boeing 757-223, Registration Number N197AN, Chicago, Illinios, September 22, 2008. NTSB Number NYC04IA152B - Northwest Airlines Flight 811, Airbus A319-114, Registration Number N348NB, Manchester, New Hampshire, June 30, 2004. I make this request as a private New Zealand citizen permanently residing in Australia; however I am prepared to make the information I have requested publicly available on the internet as I have done with the information you provided to me in response to my previous FOIA requests at http://www.warrenstutt.com/NTSBFOIARequest2-1-09/index.html and http://www.warrenstutt.com/NTSBFOIARequest28-7-11/index.html Thank you for considering my request, Warren Stutt. |
I received the CDROM and the following letter in the mail from the NTSB:
The CDROM has the following files on it:
| Volume in drive D is
FOIA-2012-00042 Volume Serial Number is 7C10-A9AF Directory of D:\ 27/10/2012 04:33 AM 16,777,384 DCA02MA001_AAL587_ALL.fdr 27/10/2012 04:33 AM 16,777,386 DCA07MA310_AALengOct07.fdr 2 File(s) 33,554,770 bytes 0 Dir(s) 0 bytes free |
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