Canada Plays the Waiting Game: Unveiling the Black Box

Misleadingly named, the brightly colored box, known as a black box, plays a crucial role in understanding flight data. In order to determine the cause of error during a plane crash, a black box contains voice recordings of conversations held in the cockpit, as well as radio traffic, altitude and the sound of switches.

In the case of flight 752, the plane suffered an attack from a pair of Iranian missiles. The Ukrainian passenger jet found itself in the midst of a potential new world war.

Iran admitted on Saturday, Jan. 11 that the passenger plane was shot down by mistake. The lives of all 176 souls aboard that flight were lost. Canada was among the hardest hit, losing 57 passport-holding Canadians.

Iranian state tv had released images of the black box, confirming its whereabouts and the future plans of its analysis being held in an Iranian laboratory. CNN’s Senior Iranian Civil Aviation Authority, Fred Pleitgan, said, “it could take one or two months to extract data”.

Canada’s stance seems to be that no amount of pointing fingers will get the job done.

“I think it’s too soon to be drawing conclusions or assigning blame, especially with the added lack of black box data to support such judgments,” said Justin Trudeau at a publicly broadcast press conference, “Canada recognizes the need for a “thorough” investigation before proceeding with any action.”

The question remains, will Iran pay for this misfortune?

Only time will tell.

Iran’s head of the investigation team, Hassan Rezaelfar supports claims that the black box analysis will take about 2 months to complete, while the investigation of the crash will take about a year. As reported by the Telegraph, Iran is already facing allegations of covering up evidence from the crash site.

The account and jurisdiction of the black box remains under Iranian control, leaving Canadians at the mercy of their findings. Most recently, Kathy Fox, Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) Chair, stated that Iran has agreed to let Canada play an observer role by allowing investigators from the TSB access to the flight’s wreckage and to be present for the download of the flight data.

Today, Canadians find themselves in a vulnerable position. Unable to fully trust their allies during the wake of such tragedy and misfortune, and wanting to properly perform their national grief.