Navy may help locate TWA flight's 'black boxes'

July 18, 1996
Web posted at: 4:00 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy anticipates it will be asked to help recover TWA Flight 800's so-called "black boxes" or flight recorders, a Naval source told CNN.

The boxes include the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder for the Boeing 747 that crashed Wednesday night. The Navy was called in to help find the recorders from the chartered Boeing 757 that crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic on February 7, killing 189 people.

In that case, the Navy used underwater sonar equipment to locate wreckage and isolate the location of the plane's flight recorders.

Once located, the position of the recorders, which send out a "pinging" signal, is marked by the Global Positioning System so they can be located later, even if the signal stops.

The Navy also operates a small unmanned submarine called the Cable-Towed Underwater Recovery Vehicle, or "CURV III." The mini-sub is capable of operating at depths up to 20,000 feet and was used in the recovery of the flight recorders from the Dominican Republic crash.

Those recorders were discovered in several thousand feet of water.

The Navy source said the Navy could have equipment at the crash site off Long Island in about a day if asked for assistance. That request would come from the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Dominican Republic recovery effort cost millions of dollars.

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