. >> swissair one-eleven. >> reporter: that was the pilot of swissair 111, talking to air traffic controlinutes before he crashed into the atlantic ocean in 1998. everyone on board was killed. when crash investigators found the plane's black boxes at the bottom of the ocean, they were stunned. >> both the recorders stopped recording about six minutes before the aircraft actually hit the water. >> reporter: leaving investigators to wonder why they suddenly lost control of the plane. it was a fire they later found in the jet's entertainment system which also caused the black boxes to fail. but it took putting the plane back together all 2 million pieces of it to figure that out. bottom line the so-called black boxes aren't perfect. and they're not black either. they're usually orange. on an airplane, they're tucked inside an insulated case and surrounded by stainless steel. built to withstand temperatures high as 2,000 degrees fahrenheit and catastrophic impact. when went down in 1996 just 12 minutes after takeoff from new york's jfk airport, the plane's black boxes were recovered, but they

. >> swissair one-eleven. >> reporter: that was the pilot of swissair 111, talking to air traffic controlre he crashed into the atlantic ocean in 1998. everyone on board was killed. when crash investigators found the plane's black boxes at the bottom of the ocean, they were stunned. >> both the recorders stopped recording about six minutes before the aircraft actually hit the water. >> reporter: leaving investigators to wonder why they suddenly lost control of the plane. it was a fire they later found in the jet's entertainment system which also caused the black boxes to fail. but it took putting the plane back together, all 2 million pieces of it, to figure that out. bottom line, the so-called black boxes aren't perfect. and they're not black either. they're usually orange. on an airplane, they're tucked inside an insulated case and surrounded by stainless steel. built to withstand temperatures high as 2,000 degrees fahrenheit and catastrophic impact. after twa flight 200 went down after 12 minutes after takeoff from new york's jfk airport, the plane's black boxes were recovered, but the