Mangalore crash: black box recovered, intact


New Delhi: After 72 hours of the Air India Express Boeing 737-800 crashed in Mangalore that claimed 158 lives, the Digital Flight Data Recorder or the "Black Box" has been the found on Tuesday.
"We have recovered the Digital Flight Data Recorder, the main body is intact," said a DGCA official, adding "the black box will be sent to Delhi for forensic tests." The black box can give important information about what could have caused the plane to crash as it records all the control settings and flight parameters including velocity and altitude. The flight datarecorder records all the control settings. The DGCA has approached the US-based organisation NTSB to help in de-coding the black box data.
Meanwhile, an Air India spokesperson said Tuesday that 22 bodies out of the 158 killed in the disaster, are still to be identified and DNA tests will be conducted on them soon.
"We are working on returning the personal effects of the deceased to their relatives. So far, 136 bodies have been returned and 22 are still unidentified," said Harpreet Singh, spokesperson of AI, adding "DNA results are awaited for the cabin crew".
On what went wrong before the disaster took place, the spokesperson said: "Investigation is completely under the DGCA. We will give them whatever assistance they require from us."
The DGCA had late on Sunday began investigating the crash of the Boeing 737-800 (VT-AXV) after the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and a part of the black box containing the digital flight data acquisition unit (DFDAU) were handed over to it by the search party.
"The aircraft's CVR has been recovered. Though affected by fire, it is expected to yield the desired information," the regulator said in a statement here. The DGCA had appointed Air Safety director Bir Singh Rai as an inspector of accidents to assist the investigation team and experts.
"Analysis of CVR and flight data will be conducted in the next fortnight. Similarly, analysis of records pertaining to the crash will take a couple of weeks," a probe official said.
The probe team inspected the aircraft wreckage at the crash site, runway and adjoining area of the Bajpe airport, about 20 km from this coastal city. For ascertaining the causes behind the air mishap, which claimed 158 lives, the investigation team had formed four groups -- engineering and wreckage group, operations group, air traffic control group and aerodrome group. What is Black Box?

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