The cockpit data recorder (black box), flight data recorder and other important parts � which may help explain why the twin-prop Beechcraft 1900D owned by Wings Aviation crashed � have been found by a team of investigators from the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) and National Emergency Management Agency (NE-MA).
Black box is an electronic data recording device that records all communications between the pilot and the ground aircraft navigation officials.
Although this is yet to be made official but THISDAY learnt yesterday that after a vain search for a helicopter capable of hovering above the crash site to give the investigators a clear view of the scene, NEMA contacted OAS Helicopters which took the team to Busi village, near Obudu, Cross River State, on Tuesday. It lowered the team at the crash site where the elusive black box was found.
The recordings in the black box are expected to reveal why the aircraft which left Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMA) on March 15, 2008 at 7.00 am and was expected to land at 7.45 am at Obudu airstrip crashed
Industry experts believe that the likely cause of the crash of the airplane was bad weather as the Calabar-Port Harcourt axis of the nation�s airspace is notoriously turbulent.
The Obudu area is also characterised by interconnected hills and valleys in a heavy rain forest which is said to be the reason why it was difficult to discover the aircraft for five months and two weeks.
THISDAY learnt that it was difficult for NEMA to get to the site and carry out the search mission because the agency did not have the type of helicopter for that kind of operation.
Accessing the site has been difficult because NEMA did not have the right equipment to go down to the difficult terrain where the airplane crashed, experts said.
A source told THISDAY that special helicopters are needed to send the search team down to the crash site, but the agency is yet to acquire such equipment.
�NEMA is yet to buy the right helicopter for search and rescue. The area needs the kind of helicopter that would hover because of the area�s high altitude so that it will be able to lift down the investigators who will go and search for the black box,� the source said.
The crash site was discovered by three hunters on August 30 and when the helicopter crew hired by NEMA could not continue to operate the agency�s helicopter at the expiration of their contract, the officials of AIB offered to trek to the site from Busi with hunters and soldiers.
The 19-seater aircraft with registration number 5N JAH had disappeared with a three-member crew: the pilot, Captain Augustine Egbedi; the co-pilot, First Officer Mohammed and a marketing executive, Ms Fubarata Jack.
Bodies, apparently those of the crew members, were removed by NEMA rescue helicopter on September 3 at 6.30 pm.
The remains which were merely skulls and bones were packed in plastic bags and loaded into the helicopter.
One of the bodies, apparently that of the airhostess (had braided hair), was badly charred by the fire that engulfed the aircraft as she appeared to be the only one trapped in the aircraft while those of the pilot and co-pilot were found outside the charred remains of the aircraft.
The remains are undergoing a DNA test to identify the victims properly.
Sep122008