WASHINGTON — The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is helping Chinese officials download a cockpit voice recorder that was damaged in the mysterious crash of a Boeing Co. 737 jetliner on March 21, the agency said Friday.
The work to decipher the final sounds caught by cockpit microphones on the doomed airplane is being carried out in the NTSB’s lab in Washington, D.C., spokesman Peter Knudson said via email. He declined to discuss how or when the so-called black box was transported to the U.S. lab, which is routinely used by investigators around the world after accidents.
The work is being assisted by technicians from Honeywell International Inc., which made the cockpit recorder, said a person familiar with the effort who asked not to be named discussing the sensitive investigation. The device was damaged in the high-impact crash, Chinese investigators have said.
