Authorities confirmed the recovery of the black box from Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302, which crashed near Bishoftu, 62 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa, on March 10, 2019. The device was found among debris scattered across a flat plain, alongside a crater formed by the impact.
The Boeing 737-8 aircraft, which had been in service for three months, crashed just six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 passengers and crew. Ethiopian state television reported that both the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) were recovered, though investigators cautioned that determining the cause remains ongoing.
Witnesses described intense fires at the crash site, preventing immediate access. The black box, despite its name, is typically orange to aid visibility. Ethiopian Airlines grounded its entire fleet of Boeing 737-8 aircraft on March 11, 2019, following the incident. This crash follows a similar tragedy in Indonesia in October 2018, where a Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed, killing 189 people.
The device is designed to record flight data and cockpit communications, crucial for accident investigations. Ethiopian authorities emphasized the importance of the recovered data in understanding the crash, while families of victims awaited further updates.
