Search suspended for black box of ill-fated Air India flight

Investigators hunted in vain for the crucial Digital Flight Data Recorder-the ‘black box’-of the crashed Air India plane for the second full day on Monday and were studying tapes of air traffic control contact with the aircraft in its final moments.
Bodies of 22 persons were meanwhile yet to be identified prolonging the agony for grieving families waiting to claim their loved ones and the results of DNA tests were awaited.
Operations for the search of the orange-coloured Digital Flight Data Recorder or the ‘black box’ - which had been the focus of investigators - were suspended in the evening and will be resumed on Tuesday.
CVR, other key devices to be analysed in Delhi
The crucial devices of the aircraft, including the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), which could provide vital clues would be brought to New Delhi soon to analyse the cause of the accident that claimed 158 lives.
The CVR and the Digital Flight Data Acquisition Unit (DFDAU), which record the cockpit audio and most of the aircraft’s technical details, would be brought to the headquarters of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) here for analysis, official sources said.
The CVR and the DFDAU, which were retrieved from the debris in a burnt condition, would be analysed by officers of the DGCA’s Air Safety Division. While the CVR captures radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit such as the pilots’ voices and engine noise, the DFDAU records all parameters of a short-duration flight.
However, since the two crucial devices are damaged, efforts would be made to take the electronic chips of the CVR and insert them in a serviceable unit in order to retrieve the information, the sources said.
24/05/10 The Hindu

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