The two recorders are being confused as to which one may deliver data.
CANADIAN PRESS
HALIFAX - Investigators searching for the cause of the crash last week of a Boeing 747 cargo jet won't get to hear from the two people who may have known exactly what happened.
After days of searching swampy, scorched terrain outside Halifax, officials recovered the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder from a kilometre-long trail of mangled debris.
"But that's the good news," Bill Fowler, lead investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said during a news conference today.
"The not-so-good news is the recorder was damaged such that there is no retrievable information."
The so-called black box, which records the cockpit conversations of the pilot and co-pilot, was destroyed by fire after the MK Airlines Ltd. jumbo jet crashed on takeoff last Thursday at Halifax International Airport.
Fowler said the recorder was found yesterday and shipped to the board's lab in Ottawa.
It was quickly determined that no recording survived the fire that resulted when the jet, carrying a full load of fuel, hit the ground and broke up.
"It certainly would have helped but we were operating under the assumption we wouldn't have it," said Fowler, referring to the severity of the impact.
A second black box - the plane's flight data recorder - was recovered Sunday. That instrument, which monitors aircraft function and performance, was also damaged but investigators are hopeful it will offer fresh clues.
Fowler said the tape in the data recorder broke on impact, but has been repaired.
"I would hope that we can have some information on the data shortly, but I have to be realistic," he said. "It could be much longer - up to a week or two weeks - and that's on the outside."