Black boxes of crashed A400M plane found in Spain

Spanish authorities on Sunday found the two cockpit recorders of the Airbus A400M military plane that crashed near Seville airport, killing four people, as Britain, Germany and Turkey grounded their models of the aircraft.

The recorders were found at the scene of Saturday’s crash and turned over to the judge who is leading the judicial investigation into the accident, the public works ministry said in a statement.

The military transport plane crashed in a field and burst into flames just north of Seville’s airport after hitting a power line during an apparent attempt at an emergency landing.






Four people on board died while another two, a mechanic and an engineer, were taken to hospital where they are listed in serious but stable condition.

Dozens of investigators, some wearing a protective white suit, scoured the crash scene on Sunday for clues into the cause of the accident.

Aircraft manufacturers equip all their planes with two black boxes ?- a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder.

The flight data recorder records a stream of flight information such as altitude and air speed, while the cockpit voice recorder stores conversations and other noises made in the cockpit.

The plane, due for delivery to the Turkish air force in June, was one of the new A400M troop and vehicle transporters manufactured by European aerospace group Airbus.

The crash was the first involving one of the aircraft, which Airbus assembles at a plant in Seville.

Britain, Germany and Turkey said they would temporarily stop flying their A400M transport planes until the causes of the accident were known.

France, the largest operator of A400Ms, said it was not grounding its planes at this point.

“We have no reason to lead us to stop our A400 fleet,” said Colonel Jean-Pascal Breton, head of the press service of the French air force.

Malaysia, which received its first A400M plane in March, has not yet announced its position.

There are a total of 12 A400M planes in use at the moment — France has six, Britain and Turkey have two each and Malaysia and Germany each have one.

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