Author: Monica

In an article published today titled, Second Black Box Recovered From Germanwings Crash, The Wall Street Journal reported that the flight data recorder black box from the tragic Germanwings crash has just been found. The box is reported as having been charred and buried in an area previously searched but missed because its color blended with nearby rock. Leaving aside the facts that the black boxes are actually orange so they stand out in a wreck (designed no doubt to withstand fire…see the Germanwings cockpit voice recorder pictured above…it is still orange) and that they are equipped with beacons so that they can be located right away (which it was originally reported they were), France’s President Francois Hollande stated the day after the crash that the second black box had been found but that the flight data recorder memory card was missing.

Here is a video from March 25 (the day after the crash) of Hollande saying the second black box was found…I’m not sure if this is where he says the memory card was missing (I don’t speak French!) but the article below from CBS News reports that he said the contents of the box were missing.

So what’s the real story? These days I find the rawer the data, the closer to the initial incident, the less time the information-masters have to craft a narrative to fit all the pieces of the puzzle as they emerge. Many argue that initial reports can’t be relied upon, but weighed against unsubstantiated stories shoe-horned into the official narrative, I’ll take the raw material and see if there isn’t a more sensible narrative that emerges organically.

For more holes in the official story, click here.

Below is the original CBS report–it too is destined for the memory hole. (I put a link in the title to get to the original story which has photos and videos embedded, but I also copied the text in case the original story disappears.)

Update (March 11, 2016):  An article in The Wall Street Journal today uses the Germanwings disaster to argue for less privacy. For the record, when new “evidence” comes out a year or more after an event, I take it with a grain of salt.

Doctor Wanted Germanwings Co-Pilot to Be Hospitalized
Pilot’s doctors didn’t inform authorities out of fear of breaching Germany’s privacy laws

From the earliest eyewitness reports of a piece of the Germanwings A320 coming off before the crash, I have wondered what really caused the disaster. Among the top choices are sabotage, terrorism or mechanical defect. When a Russian A320 went down over Egypt, although blamed on terrorists after some delay, conflicting early reports on the cause of the crash renewed my concern that the A320 might have some real problems–problems Airbus’s government owners might not want to make public. Here is a new article that begins to address this question:

Airbus A320 safety record in spotlight after Russia plane crash

Original CBS Report…

Germanwings Flight 9525 black box, cause still a mystery
CBS News
Last Updated Mar 25, 2015 7:14 PM EDT

SEYNE-LES-ALPES, France — French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday that the case of the second black box of a German plane that smashed into a rugged Alpine mountain, killing all 150 people on board, has been found, but not its contents.

Meanwhile, investigators hoped the plane’s cockpit recordings would help unlock the mystery of what caused the plane to drop unexpectedly and crash.

Speaking alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Hollande promised that French investigators would do everything to determine the cause of the crash.