Black Boxes Found After Air Crash in Spain

By Christopher Bjork 

MADRID--Investigators have recovered the two black boxes from the Airbus Group NV military transport plane that crashed near the southern Spanish city of Seville on Saturday, the government said.

In a statement Sunday, Spain's public-works ministry said the black boxes of the Airbus A400M military airlifter were located Sunday morning and have been handed over to the judge in charge of the investigation.

Like commercial airlines, the A400M is equipped with black boxes that record conversations between pilots and the functioning of the aircraft's systems. Those two recording devices, which are designed to withstand crashes and fires, will prove crucial in determining the cause of the crash.

The aircraft had begun a descent shortly after taking off from the Seville airport Saturday and came down in a field about a mile north of Seville's airport. Four of six Airbus workers that were on board died in the accident, while the remaining two were sent to the hospital with serious injuries.

The crash happened during the plane's first flight, Airbus said. The aircraft, which was due for delivery to the Turkish air force in June, took off at 12:45 p.m. local time and crashed about 15 minutes later, according to Airbus.

The crash is the first of this A400M model, which Airbus assembles at a plant in Seville.

Spain's air-accident authority CIAIAC, which is overseen by the public-works ministry, is leading the probe into the cause of the crash. Airbus has dispatched technical experts to the scene to support the investigation, and the Spanish defense ministry is also helping out in the investigation, the public works ministry said Sunday.

Write to Christopher Bjork at [e-mail]

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