Peter Dohm said the following on 7/09/2008 11:55 PM:
This occasionally happens, even though the FDR and CVR have considerable
thermal inertia and are located in a part of the plane that is least
frequently affected by both fire and mechanical damage. Also, the prose
above suggests that there was some data recovered from the cocpit voice
recorder and "some data" is probably more than they would have gotten from
solid state memory.

All the same, there has been a move from magnetic tape and metal foil to
solid state memory in the 20+ years that I have been out of that industry.
However, IMHO, that has been a case of obtaining more detailed data and
information (most of the time) and greatly reduced maintenance cost (the
frequent replacement of tapes and foils was shop maintenance) and accepting
far less robust media in order to accomplish those goals.

Personally, I can see more than one side of the arguments leading to these
changes and I have mixed feelings regarding the wisdom of same.

There's no reason, except cost, why both can't be fitted. Solid state
can potentially record most of a flight and, if it survives provide a
considerable amount of data over an extended timeline. If the solid
state doesn't survive then there's still the legacy FDR and CDR.

A damaged hard disk might offer higher rates of recovery than a damaged
solid state drive. However, I'm not sure how well a hard disk would
tolerate mid air turbulence. Anyway, I think their ability to survive a
fire might be a lot less than that of the older devices.