Another ‘Black Box’ Recovered--Could Explain Jet’s Crash

A robot submarine today recovered the “black box” flight recorder of an Air-India jet, the last major piece of evidence that could explain why the plane crashed last month, killing all 329 people aboard.

An American-built Scarab midget submarine brought up the black box in the steel claws of its extensible arms this morning, almost exactly 24 hours after it recovered the plane’s cockpit voice recorder.

Both devices were located about 150 miles off the Irish coast in over 6,700 feet of water. No salvage operation had ever been attempted from such a depth before.

An international recovery team is hoping the flight recorder, along with the voice recorder, an examination of wreckage and forensic tests on the bodies recovered, will indicate whether an explosion or structural failure caused the crash.

Sikhs Claim Responsibility

Sikh extremists have claimed they put a bomb on board the 747 jumbo jet, which was flying from Toronto to Bombay when it went down.

If a blast did not cause the crash, it might have resulted from structural failure, which would be a major worry for Boeing, the makers of the 747, and the world’s airlines, which operate 600 of the planes.

The French recovery ship Leon Thevenin operated the remote-controlled Scarab. The ship is scheduled to dock in Cork on Friday morning.

The head of the Indian investigating team, Cmdr. Sunil Kulkarni, said the recorders appeared to be undamaged.

Tapes to Go to Bombay

He said they will be flown to Bombay within the next two days, where they will be carefully washed before being opened and played back.

The chief investigator for the Canadian Civil Aviation Safety Board, Pierre de Niverville, who will be accompanying the recorders to Bombay, warned that they might not show anything.

“If there was a sudden electrical failure, they would give us nothing, since they operate off the plane’s power system,” he said.

But he added, “If the plane took some time to break up, then we should get quite a bit of information, such as the reactions of the crew, sounds of the engines and any communications with ground control.”

De Niverville said it could take days, or even weeks before the recorders could be decoded.

Britain Wants Tapes

Press Assn., the British domestic news agency, said British authorities were trying to persuade the Indians to allow the examination to take place in Britain or the United States, both of which have special centers for doing the analysis.

British Transport Department press officer Pam Williams denied that Britain was trying to persuade the Indians to change their minds, but she said only the United States, Britain, Canada and France had special facilities and experience in analyzing such tapes.

“We have said we have the equipment here, we have the experience, and we’re offering to help,” she said in London.

Another London aviation source said there was concern that the tapes might be damaged by inexperienced examiners.

“It is vital data, and no one is sure of the Indians’ capabilities,” he said.