Experts to announce results of deciphered in-flight recordings of Tu-154 and Boeing-757

On Wednesday, experts are expecting to announce the results they got from deciphering the recordings of what was going on on board the Tu-154 and the Boeing-757.

According to a source in the State Civil Aviation Service, German air accidents investigators have completed their work on the in-flight recorders, the so-called "black boxes," of both jets.

The source said German and Swiss authorities were investigating into the actions of the Swiss air traffic controller that oversaw the flight of both jets on the night of July 2.

Preliminary results show it was the air traffic controller's directions that resulted in the collision between Russia's Tu-154 jet belonging to Bashkir Airlines and the Boeing-757 cargo jet at an altitude of 11,000 meters, which claimed the lives of 71 people.

RIA Novosti's source said the investigation into the air traffic controller's actions would be over next week.

In the meantime, Axel Til, the head of the laboratory that deciphers in-flight recordings at the German air accidents department, told RIA Novosti that the in-flight recorder on board the Tu-154, which collided with a Boeing-757 on the night of July 2, had recorded the voices of Russian pilots with a varying speed -- "sometimes quicker and sometimes too slow." According to his words, this effect resulted from "structural peculiarities" of the jet's "black boxes." He also said the speed with which the laboratory's tape recorder played the tape was different from that with which it had been recorded, adding that the task facing the experts was to synchronize, i.e. reproduce all recordings made by the Tu-154 and the Boeing's engineering and voice recorders "on one single time scale" so as to find out how promptly the crew had reacted to the air traffic controller's instructions.

By now, the experts have deciphered a record of what was said between the Boeing's crew and the Swiss air traffic controller, which shows the jet's Traffic Control Advisory System, or the TCAS, signaled collision danger and ordered the pilot to descend, which he instantly reported to the air traffic controller.

As for the Tu-154, the expert stated there was "a lot of talk going on" between crew members, who at a certain point talked "in a very agitated manner and all at once." He said the quality of the record was poor and that it would not be easy to decipher it.

So far, the German experts worked without an interpreter. The tape must first be heard by the Russian expert delegation, which is currently visiting Friedrichshafen. The delegation is expected in Braunschweig in the afternoon on Wednesday to listen to the tape together with the German specialists.

Til assumes the Russian side will undertake the task of deciphering the tape. The text will then be translated into English and an English-language report will be drawn up on everything that was said between the pilots and the air traffic control.