Copter crash: Search on for Black Box of Army's Advanced Light Helicopter

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Search is on to locate the Black Box of the Army's Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) that crashed near Tuting, in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday, military officials said on Sunday.

Personnel of 21 Para (Special Force) from Jorhat in Assam were air-dropped at the crash site on Saturday and search is on to recover the Black Box to ascertain the exact cause of the crash, an official said.

"The area is thickly wooded which is creating hindrances in carrying out the search," he added.

The black box is an instrument that records all the activities of an aircraft. All flight information is recorded into the black box with a specific algorithm. This makes the recorded flight data accessible to authorities when needed.

Contrary to popular belief, the black box is mostly bright orange, not black. Black boxes that are resistant to the most extreme situations are one of the most special tools of the aviation research industry with their voice recording features.

The Army headquarters had ordered a Court of Inquiry to investigate the causes of the accident.

Just before the ALH chopper crashed, its pilots sent a 'Mayday' call to the air traffic control, suggesting a technical failure in the aircraft, a Defence spokesperson had said on Friday. A 'Mayday' call refers to a distress call over radio communication by pilots to the air traffic control in case of emergency.

"Prior to the crash, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) had received a Mayday call suggesting a technical or mechanical failure. This will form the focus of the Court of Inquiry (CoI)," Tezpur-based Defence PRO Lt Col AS Walia had said.

The ALH carrying five Army personnel, including two pilots, was on regular sortie when it crashed at 10:43 am on Friday near Migging, around 25 km south of Tuting, killing all on board.

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