A320 BLACK BOXES SENT TO MOSCOW
Kommersant, Russia
May 25 2006
The second black box of the A320 jet that crashed on May 2 outside
Sochi was retrieved in the Black Sea yesterday. Experts of the
Interstate Aviation Committee are to start deciphering the data of the
recorders soon. However, the head of the committee, Tatyana Anodina
doubted that the data in the black boxes were kept intact.
Igor Levitin, Russian transportation minister and head of the committee
investigating the crash, Tatyana Anodina, head of the Interstate
Aviation Committee, and Armenian Ambassador to Russian Armen Sumbatian
went to Sochi yesterday to meet members of the search expedition. The
operation to retrieve the two flight recorders of the A320 lasted 20
days but finished with a success, as Igor Levitin said. The audio
recorder was found and retrieved on Monday. The parameter recorder
was located on Tuesday night and lifted from the Black Sea on early
Wednesday morning. The operation was complicated as the black boxes
were covered with a thick layer of sediments and experts first doubted
that they would manage to locate and hoist the recorders.
Chairperson of the Interstate Aviation Committee Tatyana Anodina
told the press that the audio recorder will be deciphered in Moscow,
contrary to earlier reports that the black boxes will be sent to
Airbus’ specialists in France. Ms. Anodina remarked that there are
chances that the data in the boxes was lost. “The parameter recorder
is intact, but the audio recorder may be in a bad state. The magnetic
film was damaged by the aggressive sea medium and mechanical effects,”
she said.
Experts hope to discover the cause of the crash with the help of the
data in the recorder. A participant of the operation supposed that
the plane probably crashed following the loss of aerodynamic qualities.