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Explainer | China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735: what are ‘black boxes’, or flight recorders, and are they likely to survive a high-impact crash?
- All passenger planes carry two recorders containing audio from the cockpit and extensive flight data that can provide clues to the cause of the accident
- The information they contain can also help improve flight safety in future, for example by highlighting flaws in aircraft design or pilot training
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One of the key tasks after Monday’s plane crash in southern China is to search and retrieve data from the two “black boxes” that could provide vital information about what caused China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 to crash into a hillside in the southern Chinese region of Guangxi.
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None of the 132 people on board are expected to have survived the country’s deadliest air disaster in decades. One of the black boxes – more accurately known as flight recorders – was found on Wednesday, and the exterior of what is believed to be the cockpit voice recorder was “severely damaged” although the memory unit appeared relatively intact, a Chinese aviation official said.
The search continues for a second black box, which could contain crucial flight operational data to help establish the cause of the crash, and the possibility remains that it could have been damaged or even destroyed on impact.
But such is their importance to crash investigators, flight recorders are designed to be extremely resilient. Here’s why.
What is a black box?
The term “black box” is used to refer to two different flight recorders, both of which are required on planes.
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