Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
At the risk of stating the obvious, AF447's flight recorders were readable after nearly two years at the bottom of the South Atlantic.
Presumably because they were kept immersed in water until they were opened.
As regards de soldering the memory chips or even breaking open the plastic case, introducing heat or static can risk damaging non volatile memory. Always better to read/download the data using the edge connectors provided where risk of damage is minimised.