Airliner Black Boxes

It depends on the age of the recorders. Only the very latest do because the GPS system is relatively modern compared to the flight recorder technology. With all thing in aviation the wheels grind very slowly. Most if not all long distance aircraft should have an ELT emergency locater transmitter this acts as the wreck locator. Some aircraft that fly over water have acoustic locators. The "Black boxes" are painted a bright orange or yellow so as the make them more visible. The boxes are normally located in the rear radio equipment bays behind and bellow the main cabin.

Additional information to be added to the Guest comment.

On commercial aircraft, generally there are two recorders. One is a flight recorder and is mounted in the tail area.

The second one is a voice recorder and is mounted up front as the guest has mentioned.

Private US certificated aircraft must have an emergency locater (not a recorder) on board that transmits an identifier on a emergency frequency that can be homed in on with directional finding equipment. Later models broadcast the GPS position. The newer ones can be received and triangulated by satellite.

From my experience in the '80s, ELT signals were detected by a Russian satellite and when detected they would notify the FFA who would contact the local Civil Air Patrol for the area. Then the CAP planes would take to the sky looking for wreckage. Once we flew from Charleston, SC down to Hilton Head in response to a detection looking for a crash site. We finally determined that the signal was coming from the Hilton Head air field. After landing and taxing up to a group of parked planes, we shut down the engine and pushed the Cessna around until we found the culprit. A really hard landing will cause the ELT to transmit. We then had to find someone to call the planes owner and get him to come out and reset his transponder.