An apparatus for holding a flight data recorder in an aircraft includes a housing that defines a compartment enclosing the flight data recorder and a flotation device encapsulating the flight data recorder. If the aircraft crashes into a body of water and become submerged, one or more releasable fasteners holding the compartment's cover in place are triggered thereby removing the cover over an opening in the compartment and ejecting the flotation device and the flight data recorder out of the compartment. The floatation device then floats the flight data recorder to the surface of the water where it can be located by the rescuers.