Local men find black boxes from 1985 plane crash

BOLIVIA — Two local men on a mission to find missing planes and their black boxes have made a discovery in South America.

Dan Futrell of Sommerville and Isaac Stoner of Cambridge have a fascination with missing airplanes and their data recorders. After months of training and weeks of hiking in Bolivia, the two men discovered the missing black boxes of Eastern Airlines Flight 980.

Futrell and Stoner posted images of their find online -- images show a piece of wing frame and an apparent piece of the two recorders. One picture shows "CKPT VO RCDR" written on electrical wires, which the men say confirms the devices they found were data recorders.

In 1985, Flight 980 took off from Paraguay in route to Miami when it crashed into Mount Illimani in Western Bolivia. Crash investigators have long suspected that the plane's debris landed in a spot that was nearly in-accessible. Futrell and Stoner spent about a year searching mountain, which is the second highest peak in the Andes of Bolivia, to find the recorders.

Futrell said in his blog that Flight 980 caught his eye and he and Stoner set out on this expedition to find the black boxes.

Since 1965, crash investigators have failed to recover the flight data recorders from almost 20 crashed aircraft, including both planes that crashed in to the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001.

Both men say the trip to Bolivia accomplished its goals.

Cox Media Group