ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
May 27, 2006 Saturday 02:49 PM EST
”Black boxes” from crashed Armenian plane brought to Paris
by Mikhail Timofeyev
Two flight data recorders from the Armenian Airbus-320 passenger
plane that crashed in the Black Sea of Sochi on May 3 were brought to
Paris on Saturday.
Specialists will examine and open the so-called “black boxes” to
retrieve memory microchips that record different flight data
parameters and conversations in the cockpit.
After that the recordings will be analysed in Moscow by experts from
Russia, Armenia, and France.
The CIS Interstate Aviation Committee said earlier it would take at
least 15 days to analyse the data in the recorders.
IAC head Tatyana Anodina said about 2,000 planes of the Airbus-320
type are operating around the world, and everybody wants to get full
and objective data about the accident as soon as possible.
According to Anodina, two black boxes from the crashed plane record
conversations in the cockpit and plane system data. “Unfortunately
the voice recorder was seriously damaged but the data recorder,
according to preliminary information, is in excellent condition.
Recordings will be analysed in Russia, using equipment from France
where the Airbus-320 airliner was designed,” she said.
There were three flight data recorders aboard the plane but no
signals from the third one have ever been registered, which suggests
that its radio beacon was knocked off during the crash.
Flight data recorders used on aircraft of the Airbus-320 type
withstand the depth of up to 6,000 meters for 30 days, experts from
the French air crash investigation bureau said.
Each flight recorder weighs 10 kilograms, including a seven-kilogram
armoured casing for the gadget. The casing can withstand water
pressure at a depth of 6,000 meters, the temperature of 1,100 degrees
Celsius, and the compression of 2.2 tonnes.
Of 113 people who were abroad the plane, 51 bodies have been found so
far.
The Airbus A-320 of the Armenian airline Armavia plunged into the
Black Sea as it was making a landing manoeuvre in the early hours of
May 3. The accident claimed the lives of 113 people.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress