THE Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCCA) will next month conduct a “read out” of the black box from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) helicopter that crashed last December claiming the lives of five long-standing servicemen.

At a news conference on Thursday, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo said: “They have scheduled a read out of the black box for next month; March… They have invited representatives to be there at this scheduled read out of the black box, and at that time we will find out what took place in the helicopter, hopefully, from the recording of the black box.”

A black box is a flight data recorder that is located in air vehicles. An algorithm is used to record all flight data into the black box. This allows the authorities to retrieve the recorded flight data as needed.
This was sent the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in Washington, United States for analysis.

Brigadier Gary Beaton, Project Engineer, GOG; Colonel Michael Shahoud, Commander of 1st Infantry Battalion; Lt. Col. Michael Charles, Pilot; Lt. Col. Sean Welcome, Commanding Officer Reserve Battalion; and Warrant Officer Class 2 Sergeant Jason Khan perished when the ill-fated Bell 412 they were flying in crashed 30 miles from the Venezuelan border.

The men were a part of a seven-man team visiting troops near the border. The two soldiers who survived the crash are Corporal Dwayne Jackson and Lieutenant Andio Crawford.

Search efforts for the aircraft and the men on board had begun shortly after a signal from an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) was received mere hours after the aircraft had taken off.

A Skyvan and members of Special Forces were deployed in the search. Initially, it was hoped that troops who were a part of the operation would descend into the heavily forested area to intensify the search for the missing men and their plane.

However, thick fog and other elements of nature narrowed this option. The area where the aircraft was located is heavily forested and mountainous. The search was called off when night fell, but it was resumed the following morning. Additional resources and manpower were also deployed.

After two days of battling extreme weather conditions, the uncertainties of unexplored forest, and mountainous terrain, the survivors, and those who had died were extracted from the crash site.
Guyana’s Civil Aviation Authority and the Guyana Police Force have been leading the investigations into the fatal crash.