Civil Aviation Authority takes possession over black boxes of An-26

Almost three weeks after the plane crash in Iraq, the black boxes of the An-26 aircraft operated by Aerian-Tur-M, which went down after making a pass over the US-run military airport in Balad, 90 kilometres north of Baghdad, were handed to the technicians of the Civil Aviation Authority (ASAC), Info-Prim Neo reports. According to ASAC, the technicians received the flight recorders on January 29. They were transported to Adana town, Turkey. Afterwards they will be sent to the Interstate Aviation Committee in Moscow to be examined and decoded. The Moldova-registered Antonov 26 plane had taken off from the southern Turkish city of Adana and crashed near the airport in the town of Balad, north of Baghdad, as it made a second attempt to land in heavy fog. Five crewmembers, all of them Moldovan citizens and 30 Turkish workers were on board. The crash killed 35, including the crewmembers: pilot Anatol Sheflediuc, copilot Sergiu Mashtelear, flight engineers Alexei Ganja and Grigore Ciupricov, and flight attendant Petru Sarbu. The workers transported by the aircraft were employed by the Turkish construction company Kulak. According to ASAC, the examination of the black boxes could discover the reason of the crash – wheatear conditions, human error or a terrorist attack. Residents of Balad said that hours after the crash leaflets were distributed in the town saying a Sunni Arab insurgent group, the Islamic Army, had shot down the plane with a missile.