Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Black Boxes Found, Will be Turned Over to International Authorities

Rebels in Donetsk in Ukraine say they believe have recovered the black boxes from the downed Malaysia Airlines jet and will turn them over to the international aviation authorities.

Donetsk rebel leader Alexander Borodai said that his people have found “details which look like the black boxes” and confirmed he will hand them over to the International Civil Aviation Organization, but not to the Ukrainians.

“We are not tech experts, none of us have seen a black box,” he said.  “We suspect that the artifacts we’ve recovered are the black boxes.”

The black boxes are flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders.  A flight data recorder records ongoing information about what is taking place in the aircraft’s systems including flight parameters.  The cockpit voice recorder records conversations in the cockpit and radio communications taking place between the pilots and anyone else on the flight deck and air-traffic controllers.

Despite its black-box nickname, flight data recorders are usually bright orange, for high visibility in recovery efforts.  Data contained in the devices has been used to reconstruct countless accidents and what led to them.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)