Plane’s maker to decode recorder

MUMBAI: The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is investigating the crash of a Beechcraft C-90 in Ghatkopar on June 28, has asked the plane's manufacturer to help in decoding the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) recovered from the crash site.

Beechcraft has been asked to send their representatives to AAIB’S Delhi office. AAIB officials, who are privy to the investigation, said that they were waiting for a reply from the aircraft manufacturer.

It is rare for the investigator to ask the aircraft manufacturer for help in decoding the CVR, but in this case, considering that the crashed aircraft was under maintenance, the investigator wanted the manufacturer’s views to make the investigations more strong.

A senior AAIB official from Delhi said, “The AAIB team wants to retrieve the entire recording without causing any damage to the recording. Since it was the aircraft’s first flight after being under maintenance, they want to avoid tampering the CVR.”

The 12-seater aircraft, which was on its first test flight after three-year-long repairs, crashed into an under-construction site, killing five people.

Officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)’S Mumbai office and AAIB have already visited the crash site.

The CVR was found in the wreckage around an hour after the crash.

AAIB officials had earlier said that the preliminary report of the Ghatkopar crash would be released in 15 days of the crash. However, AAIB is yet to submit preliminary reports into earlier air accidents in Maharashtra.

The accidents are those involving a Pawan Hans helicopter that crashed off the Mumbai coast on January 13, killing seven people, including five senior officials of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC).

Though the CVR and the digital flight data recorder (DFDR) of the helicopter was found two days after the crash and was to be decoded by the AAIB in Delhi, the DFDR was sent to France (to the manufacturer of the helicopter) for decoding, the reports for which are yet to be made public by the AAIB.