The sudden and untimely death of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat, along with his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 other persons has shocked the entire nation. CDS, his wife were among 13 others who were killed after an IAF chopper, they were travelling in, crashed near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu.
While India mourns the loss of General Rawat, his wife, and other armed forces officers, a big question on everyone’s mind is the cause behind the crash.
The technical team, since Wednesday, was searching for the Black Box, an important electronic device which is also known as the Flight Data Recorder that records 88 critical parameters about a flight such as its airspeed, altitude, cockpit conversations, and air pressure, among other things.
According to the latest update, defence officials on Thursday were able to retrieve Black Box. According to a PTI report, official sources said the Black Box was retrieved in the wake of authorities expanding the search area from 300 metres to one km from the accident spot.
What would the Black Box do?
The black box would provide crucial data on the chain of events leading to the tragedy on the hills on Wednesday when the 63-year old General Rawat, the country’s first CDS, his wife, and 11 others were killed when the Mi-17VH helicopter they were travelling in crashed and went up in flames, leaving only one survivor. The black box can reveal the data about the helicopter’s final flight situation and other aspects.
What is a Black Box?
Despite its name, a Black Box is neither black in colour, nor looks like a box. Though called a black box, the flight data recorder is painted in bright orange colour and it records the flight data and cockpit conversations.
Many historians credit their invention to Australian scientist David Warren in the 1950s. Notably, a Black Box is compulsory for all commercial airliners and armed forces.
What is inside a Black Box?
A Black Box weighs about 10 pounds (4.5 kilos) and contains four main parts
- A chassis or interface designed to fix the device and facilitate recording and playback
- An underwater locator beacon
- A core housing or ‘Crash Survivable Memory Unit’ which is made of stainless steel or titanium.
- Inside there, the precious finger-nail-sized recording chips on circuit boards which in the latest case could help decide the near-term fate of Boeing’s grounded 737 MAX.
There are two recorders: a Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) for pilot voices or cockpit sounds and a Flight Data Recorder (FDR).
(With Reuters input)
