What is Black Box? How can the device help in resolving the enigma behind IAF chopper crash? Read here

New Delhi: The sudden demise of India’s first Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 other defence personnel after a military helicopter carrying them crashed near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday has raised questions over how the crash happened.

A forensic team of the Indian Air Force (IAF) has retrieved the black box of the ill-fated Mi-17VH Helicopter from the sight of accident.

तमिलनाडु: कुन्नूर में दुर्घटना स्थल से बरामद किया गया MI17-V5 हेलिकॉप्टर का ब्लैक बॉक्स, दुर्घटना के कारणों का पता लगाने में निभाएगा अहम भूमिका.. pic.twitter.com/0TAwckEns3

— Newsroom Post (@NewsroomPostCom) December 9, 2021

Read on to know how the device called ‘black-box’ will help in the probe to solve the mystery about what led the military chopper to crash in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu.

What is a Black Box?

The vital electronic device Black Box also known as Flight Data Recorder, records 88 crucial parameters of a flight including its air pressure, airspeed, altitude, cockpit conversations among others.

Whenever a crash occurs, these recordings helps to understand the causes of the mishap.

How does a Black Box look like?

Unlike the name suggests, neither the device is a box in its shape, nor it is black in color. The device is actually in a compressor-like shape, painted in vibrant orange color.

Significant of a Black Box?

A Black Box is mandatory for all commercial as well as armed forces flights to conserve traces from the cockpit and data to help avert similar future accidents.

A typical Black Box contains four main parts:

– An interface designed to fix the device and facilitate recording and playback

– An underwater locator beacon

– The core housing or ‘Crash Survivable Memory Unit’ made of stainless steel or titanium

– Inside there, the precious finger-nail sized recording chips on circuit boards