Most of us have heard about the tragic plane crash of Germanwings Flight 9525. After taking off from Barcelona, Spain, the plane crashed into the French mountains on its way to Dusseldorf, Germany. Immediately, it caused shock and also questions. How do people find out what happened?
There is one piece of equipment that is the key to finding the mysteries of a crash: the black box. It is a fight recorder that monitors fight data and audio. On an airplane, there are actually two black boxes: the flight data recorder(FDR), which holds information, such as altitude levels; the other box is the cockpit(驾驶员座舱) voice recorder(CVR), which records conversations in the cockpit, as well as radio conversations with air traffic control. Both can be viewed as a narrator(解说员) of the whole flight.
Black boxes are important for people to find out the cause of accidents. Usually they are bright orange so that rescuers can easily find them. Since they play such an important role, they need to be very strong.
Australia was the first country to require airplanes to have flight recorders in 1967. Since then, almost every country on the Earth follows this rule.
So what did the black boxes tell us about Germanwings Flight 9525? By studying their data, it is believed that the crash was caused by the co-pilot on purpose.
In the event of a tragedy, the truth must become clear. This is why black boxes play such an important role in finding out the truth.
