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Taiwan recovers second black box of crashed jet
By Angus Chuang
TAIPEI, June 19 (Reuters) - Taiwan navy divers recovered on Wednesday the second "black box" from the China Airlines ews) jet that broke up in mid-air and crashed into the sea last month, killing 225 people, the Aviation Safety Council said.
Retrieval of the Boeing 747-200's watertight flight data recorder, which logs flight information, could help investigators determine why the Hong Kong-bound plane broke into four pieces at 30,000 feet (9,000 metres) and crashed into the Taiwan Strait.
The box was found on the sea floor about 300 metres (1,000 feet) from the cockpit voice recorder recovered on Tuesday, said safety council spokeswoman Tracy Jen.
"The two black boxes appeared largely intact, but it remains to be seen if the data is complete," Jen said.
"We hope to find out tiny bits of detail about what happened to the plane minutes before it broke up. It's the recorders' turn to speak."
Investigators have said, even with the recovery of the black boxes, it might take a year to determine the cause of the disaster -- the carrier's fourth fatal accident since 1994. Together, the accidents have claimed more than 650 lives.
Aviation experts have floated several theories for the crash, including metal fatigue, an internal explosion, a mid-air collision or a military accident.
U.S. experts who investigated the mid-air explosion of a Trans World Airlines Boeing 747 off New York in 1996 are in Taiwan to help investigate the crash.
The two recorders would be brought back to Taiwan from Penghu island, near the crash site, later on Wednesday for analysis, Jen said, adding that it would take about a week to find out the contents.
ANGRY RELATIVES
The data recorder from the older-generation Boeing 747-200 may not have gathered as much flight information as newer models, but its recovery was still crucial to the investigation, she said.
Grieving relatives have vented their anger at the government and the airline for both the carrier's poor safety record and for delays in recovering bodies from the May 25 crash.
Taiwan and foreign salvage teams have so far recovered 123 bodies and some 10 percent of the 23-year-old aircraft, which crashed about 20 minutes after takeoff from Taipei.
The chairman and eight other board members of the state-controlled China Aviation Development Foundation, which owns 71 percent of China Airlines, resigned last month in the wake of the accident.
The awkward ownership structure of the carrier -- the government appoints a majority of the board members of the foundation -- has been widely blamed for paralysing management and making safety reforms almost impossible.
The airline's shares have slid around one fifth since the crash. On Wednesday, China Airlines shares were down 0.77 percent at T$12.85 by 0223 GMT, in line with a 1.93 percent fall in Taiwan's main TAIEX (Taiwan:^TWII - News) index.