THE MILITARY Air Equipment Testing Institute in Košice is currently examining the "black box" flight recorder of the Antonov-24 aircraft that crashed in eastern Hungary on Thursday evening, killing 42 of the 43 people on board, Slovak armed forces spokesman Milan Vanga told the press.
The black box contains computer records of the whole flight, but the part containing the cockpit sound recording, yet to be transported from Hungary, has been so damaged that it is unusable in the investigation, according to László Garamvoelgyi, spokesman for the Hungarian police in Budapest.
Debris from the Košice-bound plane, which was bringing Slovak troops back from the NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, was being collected to be taken for analysis in Slovakia. "It will be brought to Prešov airbase, where it will be analyzed. The official investigation commission will decide which parts will be needed for an in-depth analysis, in other words, which parts are directly linked to the accident," said Vanga.
Other experts are ready to assist in providing further analysis if necessary. In the past, the military has co-operated with the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and is also willing to consult foreign experts.
Compiled by Martina Jurinová from press reports
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