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WorldView

Alaska Airlines Crash: Flight Data Recorder Recovered

Aired February 3, 2000 - 6:16 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: The flight data recorder from Alaskan Airlines flight 261 was recovered Thursday in the waters off Southern California. CNN's Jim Hill is standing by with the latest from Anacapa Island -- Jim.

JIM HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Bernie, Anacapa Island is about 11 miles off the coast of Southern California. About two and a half miles north of Anacapa Island, between the mainland and the island is where the plane went down Monday afternoon.

Now if you look behind me here, about two and a half miles, right about where the plane went down, you can see a navy ship, which is the Sioux, named after the Indian tribe. This particular vessel is using side-scanning sonar to move back and forth, pulling this device under the water to map the bottom of the ocean, and in particular, the debris field left by the plane when it crashed, reportedly upside down, then sinking in about as much as 800 or 900 feet of water.

This side-scanning sonar in the hands of an expert can give a great deal of detailed information about exactly lies on the bottom of the ocean. Another ship that has been in the area, which is also a high tech ship, is the Kellie Chouest. Now, this is a recovery vessel that has been working the last couple days using a remotely operated vehicle, meaning an unmanned submarine, roughly four feet by four feet by eight feet, weighing about two and a quarter tons. Operating this under the water; up to 5,000 feet it's capable of. In this case, operating about 900 feet, looking for the two black boxes.

Now earlier yesterday, the first black box, the cockpit voice recorder, was in fact recovered late in the afternoon. Then late this morning, it was announced that the second black box, this being the flight data recorder, was also found by the same remotely operated vehicle, known as the Scorpion. Quite a device. It has two video cameras, which are sort of the eyes, which are used by people up on the surface to operate it under the water. Also some claws or hand devices which can grasp objects. In this case, the black boxes, and bring them to the surface.

So these are very useful. In this case, they got both black boxes in a case of three days, really which is quite quick when you consider it's up to 900 feet deep with powerful currents in this area -- Bernie.

SHAW: OK, thanks very much for the latest. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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