China Eastern crash: US transport safety board helping download black box data from cockpit
- US helping China’s investigation into the Flight 5735 disaster by downloading the data from the cockpit voice recorder
- American investigators have also left for China to assist in the crash probe and will operate in a strict Covid bubble
“NTSB investigators are assisting the Civil Aviation Administration of China with the download of the cockpit voice recorder from China Eastern Flight 5735 in our lab in Washington,” an NTSB representative said in a statement on Friday.
A second “black box” that captures flight data, including pilot inputs and plane performance, was found on Sunday.
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It can take days or even weeks to analyse data recovered from the black boxes of crashed aircraft. The NTSB representative said that any information from the investigation would be released by China.
They referred further questions – including why the NTSB was handling the cockpit voice recorder data rather than Chinese investigators – to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A CAAC official said last week that the recording material from the black box appeared to have survived the crash relatively unscathed. Investigators in Beijing were reported by state media to have already begun their own efforts to extract the data.
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In line with international agreements, the NTSB was invited to participate in the investigation since the plane was manufactured by an American company. Boeing and engine-maker CFM International are also taking part.
The NTSB has also dispatched officials to travel to China. The body revealed on Friday that those investigators would operate within an effective Covid-19 bubble, skirting China’s strict quarantine requirements for overseas visitors.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said the team, comprising seven experts, arrived China on Saturday.
“Investigators will limit interactions with those outside of [the] investigation similar to safety protocols at Beijing Olympics, which will allow them to begin work immediately without a quarantine,” the NTSB posted on Twitter.
The collaborative effort comes as competition and confrontation continue to define most elements of US-China ties.
A priority for investigators is to determine why the plane suddenly entered a steep descent while flying at cruise altitude in good weather and following normal interactions with air traffic control.
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Flight tracking data released by Flightradar24 indicated that the plane briefly regained some altitude at around 2,250 metres, before re-entering a downward dive. Video captured by a surveillance camera at a nearby mine appeared to show it was nearly vertical in the final few seconds before it crashed.
The CAAC said this week it had used DNA analysis to identify the remains of all 123 passengers and nine crew members. The death toll makes the crash China’s deadliest air incident in almost three decades.
Officials said on Thursday that the search of the impact area was complete, having recovered more than 40,000 pieces of debris.
Zhu Tao, the CAAC’s aviation safety chief, said on Thursday that an initial report into the accident would be completed within 30 days of the incident, in line with the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation and Chinese aviation regulations.
