Nigeria's Air Force has recovered the cockpit voice recorder from a military aircraft that crashed in the country's southwest last month, killing all 25 people aboard, marking a significant development in the investigation into the tragedy.
The Nigerian Air Force said Friday that technical teams from the service and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau had confirmed that the cockpit voice recorder was intact.
Part of the aircraft's flight data recorder, commonly known as the black box, has also been retrieved, although search teams are still trying to locate the remaining section, the Air Force said.
An ATR-42 aircraft crashed on Oct. 5 in Igbokoda, a riverside town in Ondo state, while traveling from Benin City to Lagos on a routine mission.
The aircraft was carrying 20 passengers and five crew members. There were no survivors, according to the Air Force.
Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, the Nigerian Air Force's director of public relations and information, said recovery operations were continuing in difficult swampy terrain, with teams retrieving additional wreckage, engine components and human remains.
However, the Air Force has not disclosed whether data from the recovered recorder has been extracted or analyzed and has yet to announce the cause of the crash.
The search has been complicated by the aircraft's location in swampy terrain, requiring hydrographic surveys, satellite-based imagery, water pumping and excavation to reach submerged wreckage.
The accident has also prompted calls for greater scrutiny of Nigeria's military aviation safety standards. The House of Representatives previously called for an independent investigation and a comprehensive audit of Air Force aircraft and their maintenance systems, citing concerns about operational safety, spare parts and funding.
