Tag Archives: black box

Indonesian searchers find black box from crashed jet on sea floor

Chief of National Search and Rescue Agency Muhammad Syaugi shows a part of the black box of Lion Air's flight JT610 airplane, on Baruna Jaya ship, in the north sea of Karawang, Indonesia, November 1, 2018. Antara Foto/Muhammad Adimaja via REUTERS

By Cindy Silviana and Agustinus Beo Da Costa

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian authorities on Thursday retrieved a flight data recorder from a Lion Air jet that crashed and broke apart in shallow sea near the capital, Jakarta, this week, killing all 189 people on board.

The country’s second-deadliest air disaster since 1997 has prompted renewed concern about Indonesia’s patchy aviation safety record, and the government has said Lion Air will face tougher safety regulation.

Investigations into the world’s first crash of a Boeing Co 737 MAX, introduced into commercial service last year, will be scrutinized by the global aviation industry.

“Hopefully, this can unveil the mystery behind the plane crash,” Indonesia’s transportation safety committee chief Soerjanto Tjahjono told a news conference at Jakarta’s main port after receiving the device, known as a black box.

The data it holds should provide clues to what went wrong with the plane, which had only been in service since August.

It lost contact with ground staff just 13 minutes after taking off early on Monday from Jakarta, on its way to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang.

The pilot had asked to return to base shortly after take-off, and ground control officials had approved the request.

A navy diver told broadcaster Metro TV on board a search vessel his team found the orange-colored box intact in debris on the muddy seafloor.

Indonesia’s transportation safety committee (KNKT) will analyze its data in Jakarta, which could take up to two weeks.

Searchers have yet to find the second black box containing recordings of cockpit conversations. Strong currents have hampered search efforts, complicated by the presence of energy pipelines in the area.

The discovery of the black box may provide some relief to grieving relatives. But hopes are fading of finding a large section of fuselage intact with bodies, easily retrievable, inside.

The commander of the navy divers involved in the search was quoted by the Kompas.com news portal as saying divers had found many bodies. But only one has been identified.

“What is important for us is to get more information about the victims because having their remains back is important for us so we can bury them properly,” said Ade Inyo, whose brother in law was on the flight.

MORE INSPECTIONS, SAFETY REVIEW

The investigation will be carried out with help from Boeing, General Electric and the Federal Aviation Federation, officials have said.

It will also focus on four of Lion Air’s staff including its technical director who were suspended by Indonesia’s transportation ministry on Wednesday amid speculation the aircraft was not airworthy.

“For now, we will focus on two primary causes,” KNKT deputy chief Haryo Satmiko told Reuters, referring to equipment and the people who flew, maintained and managed the aircraft.

The transport ministry suspended for 120 days Lion Air’s maintenance and engineering director, fleet maintenance manager and the release engineer who gave the jet permission to fly on Monday, it said in a press release.

Founded in 1999, the privately owned budget carrier’s aircraft have been involved in at least 15 safety incidents and it has faced tougher international safety restrictions than other Indonesian airlines.

It will now be subjected to more intensive “on-ramp” inspections compared with other airlines, authorities said.

President Joko Widodo has also ordered a review of all regulations relating to flight safety.

Indonesia is one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets. Its transportation safety committee investigated 137 serious aviation incidents from 2012 to 2017.

Lion Air said the aircraft that crashed had been airworthy and the pilot and co-pilot had 11,000 hours of flying time between them.

But according to the transport safety committee, the plane had technical problems on its previous flight on Sunday, from the city of Denpasar on the resort island of Bali, including an issue over “unreliable airspeed”.

Lion Air chief executive Edward Sirait has acknowledged reports of technical problems with the aircraft but said maintenance had been carried out “according to procedure” before it was cleared to fly again.

Lion Air’s only other fatal accident was in 2004 when an MD-82 crashed upon landing at Solo City, killing 25 of the 163 people on board, according to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety Network.

In April, the airline announced a firm order to buy 50 Boeing 737 MAX 10 narrowbody jets with a list price of $6.24 billion. It is one of the U.S. planemaker’s largest customers globally and was the first carrier globally to take delivery of the 737 MAX last year.

(Reporting by Jakarta bureau; Writing by Fergus Jensen and Ed Davies; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel)

EgyptAir black box data downloaded; evidence of fire on board

A flight recorder retrieved from the crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 is seen in this undated picture issued June 17, 2016. EGYPTIAN AVIATION MINISTRY

By Ahmed Aboulenein

CAIRO (Reuters) – Investigators have downloaded data from one of the black box flight recorders on EgyptAir Flight MS804 and are preparing to analyze it, bringing them closer discovering what caused the jet to crash, Egypt’s investigation committee said on Wednesday.

The Airbus A320 plunged into the eastern Mediterranean Sea en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19, killing all 66 people on board. The cause of the crash remains unknown.

“Preliminary information shows that the entire flight is recorded on the FDR since its takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport until the recording stopped at an altitude of 37,000 feet where the accident occurred,” Egypt’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee said in a statement.

Search teams have salvaged both of the so-called black box flight recorders. Investigators are now preparing to analyze data from the flight data recorder.

“Recorded data is showing consistency with ACARS messages of lavatory and avionics smoke,” the committee said, referring to the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, which routinely downloads maintenance and fault data to the airline operator.

The plane had sent a series of warnings indicating that smoke had been detected on board through ACARS.

Recovered wreckage from the jet’s front section showed signs of high temperature damage and soot, the committee said. Those were the first physical signs that fire may have broken out on the A320 airliner, in addition to maintenance messages indicating smoke alarms in the avionics area and lavatory.

The committee said these findings would need further analysis to discover the source and reason for the marks, however.

SECOND BLACK BOX

The second black box, the cockpit voice recorder, is still being repaired in laboratories belonging to France’s BEA aircraft accident investigation agency, where the data chips from both recorders were sent after the devices were retrieved from the Mediterranean earlier this month.

The BEA is involved in the investigation because France is both the flight’s point of origin and home to Airbus, the plane’s manufacturer. Fifteen of those killed were French.

A United States National Transport Safety Board investigator is also involved, since the plane’s engines were built by a consortium led by the U.S. company Pratt Whitney.

If intact, the cockpit recorder should reveal pilot conversations and any cockpit alarms, as well as other clues such as engine noise.

A search vessel contracted by the Egyptian government from Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search is still searching the Mediterranean for human remains.

No explanation for the disaster has been ruled out, but current and former aviation officials increasingly believe the reason lies in the aircraft’s technical systems, rather than sabotage.

The Paris prosecutor’s office opened a manslaughter investigation on Monday but said it was not looking into terrorism as a possible cause of the crash at this stage.

The crash is the third blow since October to Egypt’s travel industry, which is still suffering from the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

A Russian plane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula in October, killing all 224 people on board in an attack claimed by Islamic State. In March, an EgyptAir plane was hijacked by a man wearing a fake suicide belt. No one was hurt.

(This version of the story corrects name of French agency to BEA from BEAN in paragraphs 9 and 10)

(Editing by Andrew Roche and Lary King)

France’s BEA says black box signal detected in EygptAir hunt

People light candles during a candlelight vigil for the victims of EgyptAir flight 804, at the Cairo Opera

PARIS (Reuters) – Investigators have detected a signal from one of the black boxes of EgyptAir flight MS804 which plunged into the Mediterranean in an unexplained crash last month, France’s aviation accident bureau said on Wednesday.

“A signal from a flight recorder has been detected,” a spokesperson for the BEA agency said, referring to the hunt for the missing aircraft in deep waters between the Greek island of Crete and the northern Egyptian coast.

(Reporting by Chine Labbe; Editing by Richard Lough; Editing by Paul Taylor)