Investigators on Sunday recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from the wreckage of the Air India Express aircraft that crashed in Mangalore on Saturday, killing 158 of the 166 people on board.
But the search for the digital flight data recorder, or “black box”, is still on. Civil aviation ministry sources said the CVR was found to be “affected by fire”, but added that “it is expected to yield the desired information”. The CVR records all conversations in the cockpit between the pilots and Air Traffic Control, as well as between the pilots and the cabin crew.
A “parallel unit” of the black box, known the digital flight z`data acquisition unit (DFDAU), has also been recovered. The DFDAU also records certain “flight parameters”, but for a shorter duration.
Officials in Mangalore had a tough time managing multiple claims for bodies in certain cases, but they managed to hand over the bodies of 146 crash victims to their relatives, while the remaining 12 which remained unidentified were sent to the mortuaries of different hospitals in the city.
A two-member team of forensic experts, who arrived from Hyderabad, was present at Mangalore’s Wenlock Hospital for DNA sampling of the relatives of victims who are yet to be identified.
In Mangalore, Air India chairman-cum-managing director Arvind Jadhav announced an interim compensation of Rs 10 lakhs to the kin of the victims above 12 years of age, Rs 5 lakhs for those below 12 years; and Rs 2 lakhs for the survivors who were injured. “This will be over and above the relief of Rs 2 lakhs to the families of each victim announced by the Prime Minister,” he told reporters at a press conference.
The DGCA probe team sifted through the wreckage to find all the materials required for the investigation. An official said the staff had arrived at the crash site by Saturday evening. But they had to wait as the rescue operation lasted till about 7.30 pm.
The black box records all flight parameters, including the aircraft’s position and use of all flight controls. While the recovery of the CVR and DFDAU will prove valuable in the probe, it is the black box which is considered most crucial in the investigation. The DGCA will bring it to New Delhi for analysis, which officials said would take up to a fortnight.
For the probe, the team has been divided into four groups that will each examine the engineering aspects and wreckage, the flight operations aspect, the ATC examination and the Mangalore airport analysis.
Director-general of civil aviation Naseem Zaidi is camping in Mangalore to oversee the process. DGCA air safety director B.S. Rai has been appointed “inspector of accidents” to take possession of crucial evidence from the crash site.
Top DGCA sources late Sunday evening refused to confirm reports that the pilot of the ill-fated Air India Express aircraft might have tried to take off after landing in Mangalore on realising that he might overshoot the runway. Responding to reports that the aircraft throttle had been found in a forward position at the crash site, indicating that the pilot may have tried to take off, DGCA sources said they could not respond to speculation, and pointed out that a probe was underway.
Top sources in the DGCA and the Airports Authority of India also refused to comment on other “speculative” reports that the air traffic controller in Mangalore might have warned the pilot of a possible crash after seeing the approach path of the aircraft. The government had already stated on Saturday that the aircraft had overshot the “touchdown zone” on the runway while landing. However, minister of state for civil aviation Praful Patel had said earlier he could not say “pilot error” was responsible for the crash till the DGCA probe report was out.
The analysis of the cockpit voice recorder is expected to give investigators valuable insights into the last few moments in the cockpit before the crash and whether it was the pilot or the co-pilot who was landing the aircraft in Mangalore.