On the morning after a Mi-17 helicopter went down near Coonoor in the hills of Tamil Nadu, the first durable witnesses of the flight were found in the wreckage: its black boxes, which had been sought across a search area widened from 300 metres to one kilometre. The crash claimed Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika, and eleven other defence personnel, a loss that gives the inquiry its weight. The recorders now offer a quiet, objective account of the aircraft's final hours, and Indian Air Force officers at the site are working to read what the machine itself can tell
Black box recovered from Coonoor crash site as IAF probes helicopter crash that killed CDS Gen Bipin Rawat
CDS Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 other defence personnel were killed in the helicopter crash.
The search had to widen from 300 metres to one kilometre
Mark
Why does finding the black box matter so much this early?
Mimi
Because it's the most objective record there is. The flight data recorder logs dozens of parameters several times a second, and the voice recorder keeps the cockpit sounds, including the pilots' conversation.
Mark
And it wasn't found right away?
Mimi
No. The search area had to be widened from 300 metres to one kilometre before the recorders turned up.
Luke
Worth noting what that tells us and what it doesn't. It tells us where they were found relative to the search, not why the helicopter crashed.
Mark
So nothing is known about the cause yet?
Luke
Nothing in this report. IAF officers are collecting data to ascertain it, but no finding is stated.
Mimi
The people aboard are the weight of it. General Rawat, his wife Madhulika, and 11 other personnel died, according to the report.
Luke
One small flag: related headlines mention 13 others besides the General, which would make 14 aboard, while the body text counts 13 dead. The report doesn't reconcile that. Also, the aircraft is named as Mi-17, Mi-17VH and Mi-17V5 in different places.
Mark
And whether the recorders are usable?
Luke
Unknown. They're built to survive 3400 g and over 1,000 °C, but the report doesn't say what condition these were in.
O Pulso
- The search for the black boxes stretched outward from 300 metres to a full kilometre before the recorders surfaced, sharpening the urgency of the hunt.
- A helicopter carrying the Chief of Defence Staff and eleven other personnel came down in the hills near Coonoor, plunging the defence establishment into grief and scrutiny.
- IAF officers are combing the crash site, collecting data and material to pin down the cause of the disaster.
- With the cockpit voice and flight data recorders now in hand, the inquiry moves from searching toward reading, and the coming findings will determine what the wreckage finally reveals.
On the morning after a Mi-17 helicopter went down near Coonoor in the hills of Tamil Nadu, the first durable witnesses of the flight were found in the wreckage: its black boxes, which had been sought across a search area widened from 300 metres to one kilometre. The crash claimed Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika, and eleven other defence personnel, a loss that gives the inquiry its weight. The recorders now offer a quiet, objective account of the aircraft's final hours, and Indian Air Force officers at the site are working to read what the machine itself can tell them about why it fell.
On Thursday, December 9, 2021, officials announced that the black box of the Mi-17 helicopter had been found near Coonoor, in the Ooty area of Tamil Nadu. It was the first concrete piece of evidence to emerge from the wreckage, and the device investigators most wanted to reach.
The recovery did not come easily. Defence officials had to widen the search from 300 metres around the accident spot to one kilometre before the recorders turned up. Indian Air Force officers remain at the site, gathering data and material to establish why the helicopter came down.
The weight of the inquiry lies in who was lost. Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat was aboard with his wife, Madhulika Rawat, and 11 other defence personnel, all of whom died when the helicopter crashed near Coonoor on Wednesday.
The two recorders, the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, together give an objective account of the flight. They are built to survive severe impact and extreme heat, which is why finding them is treated as a priority. The report does not yet say what they contain or whether they are intact, and it offers no finding on the cause. The next answers will come from what the data shows.
On Thursday, December 9, 2021, the morning after the crash, officials announced that the black box of the Mi-17 helicopter had been found near Coonoor, in the Ooty area of Tamil Nadu. It is the device investigators most want to reach after an aircraft goes down, and it was the first concrete piece of evidence to come out of the wreckage.
The recovery did not come immediately. According to the report, defence officials had to widen the search area from 300 metres around the accident spot to one kilometre before the recorders turned up. The source describes the aircraft as an Mi-17 and, in one line, as an Mi-17VH. Another headline on the page calls it the Mi-17V5.
Officers from the Indian Air Force are at the site, gathering data and material that could establish why the helicopter came down. The aim is to ascertain the cause of the crash, which killed several officers of the armed forces.
The human toll is the reason this inquiry carries such weight. Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat was aboard, along with his wife, Madhulika Rawat, and 11 other defence personnel. All of them died when the helicopter crashed near Coonoor on Wednesday. Related coverage on the page refers to 14 people aboard in total, and describes Madhulika Rawat as a woman who wore many hats.
'Black box' is the popular name for two separate devices: the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. The flight data recorder keeps the recent history of a flight by logging dozens of parameters, several times every second. The cockpit voice recorder keeps the sounds in the cockpit, including the pilots' conversation. The two can be housed together in a single unit. Taken together, they give an objective account of the aircraft's flight, which can assist any later investigation.
The devices are built for exactly this situation. International regulation, overseen by the International Civil Aviation Organization, requires them to survive the conditions of a severe accident. They are typically specified to withstand an impact of 3400 g and temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius, or 1,830 Fahrenheit, under the EUROCAE ED-112 standard. When a crash happens, locating the black box is treated as a priority.
The report does not say what the recorders contain, whether they are intact, or when analysis might begin. It also offers no finding on the cause. What it establishes is that the recorders are in hand and that IAF officers are working at the site, so the next developments to watch are what the data shows and how the investigation proceeds.
Citações Notáveis
The black box is located on a priority basis after a crash to understand what actually caused it.— Oneindia report
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