By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2001 -- Searchers found the flight data and cockpit voice recorders about 4 a.m. today in the wreckage of the hijacked plane that slammed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, Defense Department officials said.
The two "black boxes" will help investigators put together the puzzle of what happened during the doomed flight, said DoD spokesman Army Lt. Col. George H. Rhynedance.
"The voice recorder will tell what was going on in the cockpit," he said. The data box, he said, will tell what was happening with the aircraft as it headed toward the Pentagon, such as its rate of turn. Information from the two boxes will help determine what actually happened during the flight, he said.
The recorders were turned over the FBI. The recorders are now at the National
Transportation Safety Board laboratory in Washington, where technicians are working to
recover data on the recorders.
www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2001/n09142001_200109142.html