Following the plane crash in South Korea last Sunday, many questions remain about the exact circumstances. Typically, answers are found in the black boxes that record flight data.
However, one of the black boxes was damaged in the crash. Initial attempts to read the data were unsuccessful, but aviation expert Harry Horlings is optimistic that the damaged data can be recovered.
Black boxes are usually orange for easy recovery after a crash and are located at the back of the plane. The cockpit voice recorder has been recovered and partially analyzed by South Korean authorities, though the findings remain unclear.
The other box, containing flight data, is damaged and has been sent to the United States for data recovery efforts. According to South Korea’s Ministry of Transport, experts there are working to retrieve the data.
Horlings explains that this box records multiple data streams, such as altitude, speed, and landing gear status. In this Boeing 737-800 crash, the landing gear failed to deploy, leading to a high-speed collision with a wall, resulting in 179 of the 181 passengers dying.
Horlings notes that the data might also indicate if birds struck the engines, which was suggested after the crash. He believes data recovery could take two to three weeks and that partial data could still provide significant insights.
Source: NOS