Crashed plane’s black box to be examined in Europe

Eray Görgülü – ANKARA

The flight recorder of the Boeing 737 plane that skidded off the runway at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport on Feb. 5 will be examined in Europe in a bid to shed light to the accident which killed three passengers and injured 180 people, including all of the crew members.

The investigation commission consisting of representatives from the Transport Safety Investigation Center, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing has applied to authorities in France and Germany demanding an examination of the plane’s flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR).

The commission abstained from getting help from the Turkish Airlines Technical Service because the operator of the plane, Pegasus, is the main rival company of the country’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines.

In the inquiry based on the examination of the plane’s black box, answers to three main issues will be sought, according to sources, the communication between the pilots and the air traffic control (ATC) tower, wind speed around the airport and the state of the runway.

The pilots and the ATC tower should have aborted landing as the tail wind speed was well over the limits of the plane, according to experts.

Under inclement weather conditions, the plane touched down on the second half of the wet runway and the brakes did not stop it.

Misjudging an automatic welcoming announce, many passengers had unfastened safety belts before the plane hurtled from a height of 30 meters, according to survivors.

The investigation commission is supposed to present a preliminary report in a month.

The prosecutor’s office in Istanbul has taken statements from the two pilots of the plane, air traffic controllers, survivors as well as from the pilots of two other planes who aborted landings shortly before the Pegasus flight landed.