US NTSB is assisting China on crashed jet’s second black box

U.S. crash investigators on Tuesday confirmed they are assisting China with downloading the second black-box recorder from an airliner that crashed two weeks ago. 

National Transportation Safety Board investigators “are now assisting the Civil Aviation Administration of China with the download” of both crash-resistant recorders, the agency said in response to questions about their work on the investigation. 

The NTSB on Friday had said it was assisting China with a cockpit voice recorder, but had declined to comment on its work on a second black box capturing flight data.

The flight data recorders were recovered in the wreckage of a China Eastern Airlines Corp. jet that plunged to the ground on March 21, killing all 132 aboard. The data recorder—which collects detailed information on how the plane was being operated and how its systems were functioning—could help investigators determine why the Boeing Co. 737-800 mysteriously dove at high speeds. 

A team from NTSB and Boeing has traveled to China to work on the probe. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is also working with the team but hasn’t traveled to China. The NTSB said any information from the recorders will come from China.