Flight recorders found from Crossair plane crash

Investigators trying to establish the cause of Monday's Crossair crash near Zurich, in which 10 people died, have now found the plane's two flight recorders.

Investigators trying to establish the cause of Monday’s Crossair crash near Zurich have now found the plane’s two flight recorders. Ten people died in the crash.

The two black boxes are expected to shed light on the reason why the Saab-340 plane went down two minutes after taking off from Zurich’s Kloten airport on its way to Germany. The plane veered dramatically to the right, instead of banking to the left as usual after take-off, indicating a possible problem on board.

The data recorders were found buried under three metres of mud near the village of Niederhasli. They were described as being extremely battered, though this does not mean that the information contained in them has been affected.

The analysis of the black boxes will be carried out at a laboratory in the Canadian city of Ottawa. It will take at least five days for the results to be known.

About 60 per cent of the plane has so far been recovered. These parts have been taken to hangar at Kloten where they are being examined by air accident investigators.

Meanwhile, Crossair announced that it had cancelled 21 flights involving the Saab-340 on Wednesday in order to carry out checks. The company said some technical problems had been detected, but none that would affect the safety of the planes.

The Saab-340 is widely reckoned to be a safe plane. Only three have crashed since 1984, when they entered service.

In another development, a memorial service is to be held on Friday for the victims of the crash, Crossair said. The service will be held in the cathedral in the northern city of Basel, where the company is based. The victims were four Germans, two French, a Swiss, a Moldavian, a Slovak and a Spanish national.

The crash was Crossair’s first involving fatalities in more than 20 years of operations.

From staff and wire reports