The discovery last week of the flight data recorder (FDR), the second “black box” at the crash site of Germanwings Flight 9525 in the French Alps has allowed investigators to shine more light on the Airbus A320's final moments, and precisely what inputs were made to its controls. Up until its discovery, all evidence as to the cause of the tragedy came from analysis of the cockpit voice data recorder (CVR), which purportedly was sensitive enough to note no change in the breathing of the co-pilot, who was believed to have locked the pilot out of the cockpit in a suicide attempt. Based upon the initial reports, the FDR unit has shown investigators that the flight controls were being methodically operated before the crash, supporting the theory that someone intentionally flew the A320 into the ground.

How much evidence can be gleaned from the badly battered FDR remains to be seen, but given the advances in black box technology over the past years, chances are good that it, like the CVR will continue to yield more information as to what really happened, according to Kevin Poormon, a senior research engineer and group leader for impact physics at the University of Dayton Research Institute. His lab has been testing black boxes for the major manufacturers for the past 25 years, putting them through punishment intended to exceed all but the worst cases, to help ensure the precious data they contain survives. “In most cases, and particularly in this event, it answers a lot of questions,” Poorman told AIN, adding the lab tests on the units should have exceeded the forces at play in the impact suffered by the Germanwings recorders. “If they had not recovered the cockpit voice recorder intact, they probably would still have been guessing about what happened. Did the pilot and co-pilot become incapacitated? Was it a terrorist takeover of the aircraft? All those questions would still be being asked right now if they did not have the information they got off the cockpit voice recorder.”