‘US-downed’ Russia jet’s Flight Data Recorder found
Indonesian officials display the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) from the crashed Russian passenger plane Sukhoi Superjet 100, during a press conference at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on May 31, 2012.
Thu May 31, 2012 9:39PM GMT
Indonesian villagers have found the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) from a Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 passenger plane that Moscow claims was downed in southwestern Indonesia earlier in May by US “industrial sabotage,” killing all 45 people on board.
The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency chief, Vice Marshal Daryatmo said on Thursday that the FDR, which logged data such as the jet’s altitude, speed, and route, was found in good condition by nine villagers in a deep ravine near the crash site on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.
The black box of the jet was found on May 15, six days after it slammed into the side of Mount Salak -- a dormant volcano in West Java.
Tatang Kurniadi, the head of Indonesia’s National Commission on Safety Transportation, said that Indonesian and Russian investigators are analyzing both the black box and the FDR to establish the cause of the incident.
A general with the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) said last week that Washington had been behind the crash.
He claimed that electronic jamming of the plane's equipment is the most credible explanation for the crash.
“We are investigating the theory that it was industrial sabotage…We know that they have special equipment that can cut communications between an aircraft and the ground or interfere with the parameters on board,” he said, noting that the Russian intelligence apparatus has long monitored the activities of US military electronic experts at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
The jet took off from the airport on May 9 on its second demonstration flight, but lost radio contact and vanished from radar screens 50 minutes later. It had been to Myanmar, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan, and was supposed to fly to Laos and Vietnam after Indonesia.
The new aircraft was built in a joint venture between Russia’s Sukhoi, Italy's Finmeccanica industrial group, and a number of other firms from Russia and other countries.
