Kuala Lumpur: Even if searchers are able to miraculously pluck Malaysia Airlines flight 370's “black box” from the depths of the vast Indian Ocean, experts say it may not solve one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.
Planes, ships and state-of-the-art tracking equipment are hunting for any trace of the passenger jet, which Malaysia said crashed in the forbidding waters after veering far from its intended course. They face a huge challenge locating the Boeing 777's “black box”, which holds vital clues to determining what caused the plane to vanish after it took off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing on March 8.
But experts believe the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder may not yield answers on the riddle of how and why the plane diverted an hour into the flight, and embarked on a baffling journey to the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean. The data recorder details the aircraft's path and other mechanical information for the flight's duration, and “should provide a wealth of information”, US-based aviation consultancy firm Leeham Co said in a commentary.
But the cockpit voice recorder, which could reveal what decisions were made by those at the helm and why, retains only the last two hours of conversations before the plane’s demise. That means potentially crucial exchanges surrounding the initial diversion, which took place halfway between Malaysia and Vietnam, will be lost.
“Clearly, it won’t reveal anything that happened over the Gulf of Thailand, this will have been overwritten by the end of MH370,” it said. Leeham added that it also remains to be seen whether the cockpit recorder will contain anything pertinent about the plane's final two hours, when it is believed to have either ditched or run out of fuel.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Monday that Flight MH370 had gone down in the Indian Ocean with its 239 passengers and crew, citing new satellite data analysis.
Finding black boxes would be one Herculean task
Paris: Recovering the black boxes from the Malaysia Airlines jet that crashed into the southern Indian Ocean is a Herculean task, even with the wealth of sophisticated equipment being deployed.
Any hope of finding survivors from the missing plane was extinguished on Monday when Malaysia's prime minister announced satellite data showed MH370’s journey had “ended in the southern Indian Ocean” off the west coast of Australia.
Seventeen days after the Boeing 777 disappeared, distraught relatives were forced to accept what they had long feared, that the 239 passengers and crew on board were never coming home.
The plane’s two black boxes are key to solving the mystery of why the plane veered so far off course and its final fate, but experts say that the search for them will be long and difficult.
In theory, the black boxes containing flight data and cockpit voice recordings will continue emitting tracking signals for about another two weeks, with an average audible range of two to three kilometres (nearly two miles). But with no debris in the remote search area confirmed as linked to the plane, it is still difficult.
