TransAsia black box records unusual sounds before crash

TAIPEI - A black box on TransAsia Flight GE222 recorded two unusual sounds just before the plane crashed on July 23, the island's aviation safety council said on Friday.

The first unusual sound was recorded at 7:06:13 pm, two seconds after the pilots requested an emergency landing, said a statement published on the website of the council. The second abnormal sound was recorded five seconds later. The two black boxes, the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, stopped recording one second later.

A preliminary report on the crash will be filed by the end of August, and a factual data report will be available in six months. The final report will be completed within 18 months, the statement said.

The flight, which took off from Kaohsiung, crashed into residential buildings in Xixi Village of the western Taiwanese island of Penghu, after a failed emergency landing at Magong Airport, causing 48 deaths.

The flight was carrying 54 passengers and four crew.