Black box in plane crash recovered
- Source: Global Times
- [01:47 November 30 2009]
- Comments
A police officer guards the crash site of a Zimbabwean cargo plane at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai. The crash left three dead and several injured. Photo: CFP
By Xu Shenglan
The flight data recorder of the Zimbabwean cargo plane that crashed during take-off Saturday in Shanghai has been found, local aviation control authorities said Sunday.
However, experts said decoding of the data recorded in the "black box" would not necessarily ascertain the cause of the accident, the Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday. Three crew members died and four others were injured after the cargo plane caught fire and crashed at the Pudong International Airport in Shanghai Saturday.
The dead were identified as three American crew members, CNN quoted the US Embassy in Beijing as saying Saturday.
The injured, who are in stable condition at the People's Hospital of Pudong New Area, are from the US, Indonesia, Belgium and Zimbabwe.
"The seriously injured American co-pilot was transferred to Pudong Ren Ji Hospital Saturday afternoon," a staff officer of the People's Hospital told the Global Times Sunday.
He said the 61-year-old American was suffering from chest and lung injuries and sustained multiple fractures, but that his situation is now stable.
Xinhua said the damaged No. 1 runway at the airport was being repaired Saturday.
Flight operations will resume after safety examinations show the runway is safe for takeoffs and landings.
The MD-ll cargo plane belonged to Avient Aviation, a freight charter airline based in Zimbabwe. It was scheduled to fly from Shanghai to the Bishkek Manas International Airport in Kyrgyzstan.
"We were wondering why the plane didn't take off one or 200 meters away from the start of the runway," one eyewitness said. "Then it suddenly gained altitude and the tail scraped the ground."
The witness, who gave his name as Jeffery, an aircraft maintenance engineer for a flight company at the airport, Qianjiang Evening News said.
"It flew 10 meters high, then fell and crashed. The whole flight lasted just five or six seconds," he recalled.
Jeffery said the cause of the crash might be an imbalance in the aircraft's center of gravity.
Planes have a center of gravity that must be within certain limits to fly successfully, but the take-off speed of the MD-ll was a little bit slow, he said.
Ground service workers said that in the past the pilots have asked the airport for fuel to help start the engine, suggesting that the aircraft was not in an absolutely good condition.
The aviation agency reported that the US National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team of government and industry crash investigators, including experts on engines, structures and operations.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China published a notice on Saturday to ensure the safety of aircraft operations.
