Will Help Decipher Black Boxes

Investigators from the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan were in China Thursday, helping to recover the twin black boxes from the wreckage of an IL-76 transport aircraft after it made a forced landing and burned Tuesday. Seven people on board the aircraft were killed.

The National Civil Aviation Administration of China said the cockpit voice and data recorders appeared to have been undamaged in the accident.

The nine-member Azerbaijani team, headed by a vice-chairman of the accident investigation committee of the country, flew to Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Wednesday. Members immediately began working with China's investigation team after inspecting the crash site.

The official Xinhua News Agency reports the Russian-made IL-76, crashed just two minutes after taking off from the Urumqi international airport. All the seven crew members, six Ukrainians and one Azerbaijani, were killed after the plane loaded with clothes, shoes and other daily necessities, pancaked into a local farm about six miles from the airport.

FMI: www.chinaonline.com/refer/ministry_profiles/c01022767.asp