we re just going to keep it in the same water until we get it back to the lab and can get it in a solution where we can clean it up. reporter: a few hours later at the ford discovery lab. look at how it just ate the plastic. reporter: to retrieve the data the phone is pulled apart, the board which includes the memory chip is baitded in an 80-degrees ultrasonic cleaner several times and any tiny salt deposits are chipped away. this is the most important part. this is where all the data is held and stored. so this this is actually looking pretty good. there we go. reporter: the chip is then removed using heat. it was in pretty good shape. so 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, even the photos and a portion of the video we recorded of the chicago river. and while our experiment with the aquarium tank is not the same as the indian ocean, our
it to the lab and get it in a solution where we can clean it up. reporter: a few hours later at the ford discovery lab look at how it just ate the plastic. reporter: to retrieve the data, the phone is pulled apart, the board which includes the memory chip is bathed into an 80 degree ultrasonic cleaner several types and any tiny salt deposits are chipped away. this is the most important part. this is where the data is held and stored. this is actually looking pretty good. reporter: there we go. the chip is actually then removed, using heat. it was in good shape. the next step, quite honestly lsh lshis to pop it into an adapter like this. reporter: there it is, the e-mails, the photos, the video we recorded of the chicago river. and 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.
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.
at the ford discovery lab look how it ate the plastic. reporter: to retrieve the data, the phone is pulled apart. the board, which includes the memory chip is bathed in an 80 degree ultrasonic cleaner several times. and any tiny salt deposits are chipped away. this is the most important part. this is where all the data is held and stored. so this is actually looking pretty good. the chip is then actually removed, using heat. it was in pretty good shape. so the next step, quite honestly, is to just pop it into an adapter like this. eventually, there it is. the e-mails i tried to send, the text message, even the photos and a portion of the video we recorded of the chicago river. and 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