“We have recovered the DFDR, the main body of the black box where the main memory is located is intact,” said an official at the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) who was part of the search team here.
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 as it records all the control settings.
Together with the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), which was recovered Sunday, the DFDR will be taken to Delhi for a preliminary analysis, while reports suggest it could later be sent to the US for a detailed examination.
The DGCA has reportedly approached the US-based organization National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to help decode the black box data that could help to explain why Air India Express flight IX-812 from Dubai landed too far along the hilltop runway at Bajpe airport.
Two teams of investigators from the US, one from the NSBT and the other from Boeing are already here to help with the investigation.
The Boeing 737-800 smashed through a perimeter boundary after hitting a instrument landing system pole, plunged down a steep forested slope and burst into flames, killing all but eight of the 166 people on board.
The searchers found another part of the data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder on Sunday.
Survivors and eyewitnesses said the plane’s pilot had tried to abort the landing and take off again as some reports suggested the 55-year-old pilot Zlatko Glusica, a British national of Serbian origin, could have been suffering from fatigue.
He piloted the same flight to Dubai and returned after turnaround overnight without much rest.
The AI first insisted that he was well rested and trained to land at Bajpe runway but India’s Aviation Minister Praful Patil on Monday admitted that human error might have caused the crash saying weather conditions and other factors “looked absolutely normal for a regular touchdown and a safe landing”.
Doctors at the central forensic laboratory in Hyderabad are conducting DNA tests on 22 bodies which have either not been identified, or with multiple claimants. The results are expected over the weekend.
“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, a spokesperson of AI.
“DNA results are awaited for the cabin crew”.
