VISCOUNT CRASH

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31188, 12 October 1966, Page 11

VISCOUNT CRASH

Clues From

Recorder

/N Z Press Assn.—Copyright) MELBOURNE, October 11. The flight data recorder recovered from the Viscount airliner which crashed at Winton, Queensland. last month is yielding valuable information to air safety investigators.

At first it was feared that the tape might be useless because its case was split and badly seared in the crash.

The tape had to undergo a special cleaning process at the aeronautical research laboratories in Melbourne before it could be put through a “readout” machine, imported from the United States last year.

Twenty-four persons died when the Viscount crashed in flames on September 24. The Federal Minister of Civil Aviation. Mr R. W. C. Swartz, said last night that a good deal of information had already been gathered from the tape. Because of its condition, the tape has needed successive cleaning treatments. Each treatment has produced more information, but has Increased the risk of damage to the tape. The resultant slow, careful reading could take several more weeks. The tape recorded air-speed, altitude, direction, vertical acceleration and time. Each piece of information was engraved in a sin wide heat-resistant alloy type tape by a diamond-tipped stylus. Mr Swartz said the tape would not supply the cause of the Winton crash, “but it will give a great deal of information on the aircraft’s flight path."

Coupled with other clues being gained by Department of Civil Aviation technical staff, it could provide an answer.