The black box captured the pilot’s final words, seconds before the cargo jet fell out of the sky. They were believed to have been “wait, wait.”
There's speculation though — following the discovery of broken cargo straps in the wreckage — that what he may have said was “weight, weight.”
The Boeing 747 cargo jet that exploded earlier this year at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, likely crashed as a result of shifting weight inside the cargo bay, according to a joint investigation by the U.S. and Afghanistan.
The investigation included the recovery of the black box, and the pilot's last words.
Dash cam footage from a vehicle on the base shows the plane literally falling out of the sky, before erupting in a massive fireball.
Seven Americans were on board the flight. No one survived.
The flight was carrying three armored vehicles and a mine detector — more than 80 tons of gear in all. If just one vehicle broke free, it could have caused the disaster with the pieces falling into one another like dominoes, according to a New York Times report.
Watch the terrifying footage of the crash:
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