later -- >> it just ate the plastic. >> reporter: the phone is pulled apart. the board is bathed in an 80-degree ultrasonic cleaner several times and any tiny salt deposits are chipped away. >> this is where data is held and stored. this is looking pretty good. >> reporter: the chip is then actually removed using heat. >> it was in pretty good shape. the next step quite honestly is pop it into an adapter like this. >> reporter: eventually there it is. the e-mails i tried to send, the text message and even the photos and a portion of the video we recorded of the chicago river. while our experiment with the aquarium tank is not the same as the indian ocean, our experts believe they could also retrieve data from cell phones on flight 370. >> the chips are fairly well protected. we were able to get the data off. i think it will be possible.