Black boxes probed for key to crash<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI (Agencies): Indian investigators yesterday prepared
\nto decipher crucial information from two aircraft black boxes
\nbelieved to hold the key to the worst mid-air collision in
\naviation history.<\/p>\n
Civil Aviation Minister C.M. Ibrahim revealed both digital
\nflight data recorders, called black boxes, were recovered from
\nthe wreckage of a Saudia Boeing 747 and a Kazhak aircraft which
\ncollided near New Delhi late on Tuesday, killing around 350
\npeople.<\/p>\n
The cockpit voice recorder from one of the aircraft was also
\nfound.<\/p>\n
Ibrahim said Indian Air Force experts would be drafted in to
\nexamine the flight recorder data to try to discover what happened
\nseconds before the impact.<\/p>\n
Civil aviation secretary Yogesh Chandra said the pilots had
\nhad no idea of the danger before the collision.<\/p>\n
He said no emergency procedures had been undertaken, saying:
\n\"At no point in time were either of the two pilots aware of the
\nimpending collision.<\/p>\n
\"It was not a head-on collision. Maybe the wings touched.
\n\"The windscreen of the Kazakh plane is intact and so is the
\nfuselage. Most of the bodies on that plane were intact,
\nsuggesting the impact was not head on.<\/p>\n
\"The bodies on the Saudi plane were all charred because the
\naircraft was fully loaded with fuel.\"<\/p>\n
Rescue workers, battling flames and other hazards, recovered
\n275 bodies by late Tuesday, the United News of India reported.<\/p>\n
They worked in darkness on a moonless night, using hurricane
\nlanterns and torches to light the fields where the flaming debris
\nof the airliners plunged to earth.<\/p>\n
Tractors were used to haul away scores of bodies.
\nThe stench of burnt human flesh, mingled with the smell of
\nburning rubber, chemicals and plastic, was heavy over the site,
\nwhere the silhouette of one airplane with its roof sliced off,
\nwas faintly visible.<\/p>\n
\"We have seen nothing like this before,\" one of the rescue
\nworkers, with a white handkerchief shrouding his face, told
\nReuters. \"It is bizarre and sickening.\"<\/p>\n
A police official said it was thought there were three or four
\nsurvivors \"but they died on the way to hospital in Charkhi
\nDadri\".<\/p>\n
Villagers crowded around the crash site and more than 300
\npolice cordoned off the area where the impact of the debris
\nploughed craters up 10 feet (three meters) deep.<\/p>\n
A U.S. Air Force pilot flying nearby reported seeing two
\nfireballs plunge to earth from an altitude of about 15,000 ft
\n(4,570 meters).<\/p>\n
The causes behind Tuesday's disaster remain a mystery,
\nalthough speculation has focussed on a possible mix-up between
\nthe pilot of the Kazakh aircraft and air traffic controllers over
\nthe altitude of the plane's approach to New Delhi airport.<\/p>\n
Indian Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, meanwhile, visited the
\nmain crash site Wednesday as army reinforcements and helicopters
\njoined the recovery effort.<\/p>\n
Dismembered bodies were still being ferried on tractors and
\ncarts from the wreckage outside the village of Kheri Sanwal as
\ndarkness fell, the operation watched by grieving relatives and
\nthousands of onlookers.<\/p>\n
The small hospital in nearby Charki Dadri was converted into a
\nmakeshift morgue as the bodies were brought in.<\/p>\n
Emergency staff wore masks because of the stench and huge
\ncrates of ice were delivered to preserve the corpses.<\/p>\n
Dr. R.K. Bansal said around 60 percent of the bodies were
\nidentifiable. \"Most of them are Indian males. There were not more
\nthan half a dozen children recovered,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Police and commandos cordoned off the area, still heavy with
\nthe acrid smell of burned rubber and metal.<\/p>\n
The Saudia airlines jumbo jet, carrying 312 people to Saudi
\nArabia, collided seven minutes after take-off with the incoming
\nKazakh Airlines Ilyushin-76 on a charter flight from Chimkent in
\nsouthern Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n
Airports -- Page 7<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/black-boxes-probed-for-key-to-crash-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }