Experts Expect Germanwings FDR Will Yield Useable Data | Aviation International News

Experts Expect Germanwings FDR Will Yield Useable Data

Locating the unit's memory module could present a bigger challenge

Although damaged, Germanwings Flight 9525's cockpit voice recorder contained the required four channels of documentation, including recordings of an attempt by the captain to break into the cockpit while the copilot flew the airplane into the French Alps. (Photo: BEA)

By Gregory Polek • Senior Editor

April 1, 2015

So far it appears French authorities reached their conclusions about the deliberate crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 based solely on cockpit voice recordings (CVR) and ground radar. With no flight data recording, the CVR still accounts for the only official on-board record of what transpired during the some ten minutes between the time the flight’s captain left the cockpit and the point at which the A320 crashed into a mountainside in the French Alps. Now, more than a week after the disaster, officials have begun to wonder out loud whether or not the FDR, made by L3 Communications, survived the impact. Lufthansa German Airlines board member Captain Kay Kratky on March 30 told German TV news show Günther Jauch that he fears the FDR might have incurred irreparable damage in the crash. “It's possible that the impact was too great for the flight recorder and that it doesn't send signals [that would help to locate it at the crash site],” he said.

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