Investigators have recovered a crucial piece of equipment that could explain why an Air India flight crashed moments after take-off last week, killing at least 270 people.
The flight data recorder, which captures important information on altitude, speed and engine performance, was recovered from the wreckage on Friday.
Now investigators have also located the cockpit voice recorder, which should contain conversations between the pilots, alarms and ambient sounds.
The two devices are what’s known collectively as the “black box” that helps experts work out just what happened when an airplane goes down.
Teams from the U.S. and the UK are on site, helping India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) to uncover the facts leading up to the crash. It is expected to be several weeks before their findings are released.
“The AAIB has launched a detailed investigation, and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is conducting a parallel probe under international protocols, since the aircraft is American-made,” the investigating team said in a statement.
Flight AI171 crashed on Thursday shortly after taking-off from Ahmedabad airport. All but one passenger onboard the Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 was killed, along with students in a doctor’s hostel.
Some of the families of the deceased are still waiting for the remains of their loved ones to be released as the painstaking work of identifying bodies continues.
It’s been a difficult few days for Air India with their aircraft caught up in two separate incidents.
A 787 Dreamliner was forced to return to Hong Kong airport on Monday after a technical malfunction was detected mid-air. The plane was en route to Delhi but made a safe landing back in Hong Kong.
And on Friday a bomb hoax forced another AI flight to return back to Phuket International Airport in Thailand after taking off for Delhi with 160 people on board. The threat was found on a piece of paper in a lavatory but the A320 returned safely.
