Mangalore crash: 72 hours on, black box found intact

Seventy-two hours after an Air India (AI) Express Boeing 737-800 crashed at the Mangalore airport, killing 158 people on board, the digital flight data recorder (DFDR) —  the black box —  has been found.

The recovery of the DFDR on Tuesday is likely to throw light on the reasons behind the crash of the Dubai-Mangalore IX-812 flight.

The DFDR logs actual flight conditions, including altitude, airspeed, heading and vertical acceleration.

A team from America’s National Transport Safety Board will assist the DGCA in decoding the black box. “The DFDR will help us know what went on in the flight,” said an AI spokesperson. It will be taken to Delhi for preliminary analysis.

The DFDR was hidden beneath the mud under the tail cone of the aircraft.  “The inner core part is in fine condition,” Kuldeep Singh, AI’s junior engineer, said.

Digger operator Mehboob Ahmed, who found the equipment, said, “I saw something black that looked like a refrigerator compressor dangling from the teeth of the scoop. I handed it over to the officials who thanked me profusely.”

On Sunday, officials had found the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the digital flight data acquisition unit (DFDAU) of the flight. The CVR records pilots’ voices, and the DFDAU records short-duration flight parameters.