The black box recovered from a plane crash in Nepal on Sunday last week is being sent to Singapore for analysis to identify the cause of the crash that killed all 72 people on board, officials said yesterday.
The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder would be examined by experts at the Singaporean Transportation Safety Investigation Bureau.
“The Nepal investigating team is leaving on Friday with the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder where the data will be downloaded and analyzed,” Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal spokesperson Rajendra Kumar KC said.
Photo: AP
It was initially suggested the black box be taken to France where the aircraft was manufactured, but Nepalese authorities plan to send the recorders to Singapore.
A committee formed by the Nepalese government is still looking into the cause of the Yeti Airlines flight crash.
Rescuers are combing the hillside for the remains of two people still missing since the crash at the resort town of Pokhara, 200 km west of the capital, Kathmandu.
The twin-engine ATR 72-500 aircraft was approaching Pokhara International Airport in the Himalayan foothills when it plummeted into a gorge about 1.6 km from the runway at an elevation of about 820m.
Although it is not clear what caused the crash, some aviation experts said video footage taken from the ground of the plane’s last moments indicated it went into a stall, but it is unclear why.
It was carrying 68 passengers, including 15 foreign nationals, as well as four crew members. The foreigners included five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one each from Australia, Argentina, France and Ireland.
The aviation authority also said the airport’s instrument landing system would not be working until Feb. 26 — eight weeks after the airport began operations on Jan. 1.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of