Why in news?
- Iran’s aviation authority said it would not hand over to Americans the recovered black boxes of a Boeing 737 that crashed on Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers and crew.
Details
- Under the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), of which Iran, Ukraine and the U.S. are all members, air crash investigations are led by the country where the accident occurred.
- However, according to aviation experts, the countries that are capable of analysing black boxes are few — notably Britain, France, Germany and the U.S.
What is Black Box?
- A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents.
- Flight recorders are also known by the misnomer black box—they are in fact bright orange to aid in their recovery after accidents.
- There are two different
flight recorder devices:
- The flight data recorder (FDR) preserves the recent history of the flight through the recording of dozens of parameters collected several times per second
- The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) preserves the recent history of the sounds in the cockpit, including the conversation of the pilots.
- The two devices may be combined in a single unit. Together, the FDR and CVR give an accurate testimony, narrating the aircraft’s flight history, to assist in any later investigation.
