Some have suggested that it stems from Hussenot's device, because it used film and "ran continuously in a light-tight box, hence the name 'black box,'" according to Airbus, which noted that orange was the box's chosen color from the beginning to make it easy to find.

The black boxes of the American Airlines plane submerged in the Potomac River from Wednesday’s crash with a military helicopter have been recovered, the National Transportation Safety Board said late Thursday.

Investigators have recovered the flight recorders—also known as black boxes—from both the commercial jet and the military helicopter involved in the mid-air collision near Reagan National Airport in Washington,