A week after the Air India Express flight IX 1344 crashed in at Calicut International Airport, the investigation team has downloaded data from the two “black boxes”, according to the Director General of Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), Group Captain Aurobindo Handa.
“Raw data from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder has been downloaded and is being processed. If any requirement is felt at any stage of investigation, necessary assistance from specialised agencies in India or abroad would be sought,” the DG wrote in an e-mail in response to a specific question on whether the data recorders were intact necessitating help from aircraft manufacturer, Boeing. The aircraft involved in last week’s crash was a Boeing 737-800 Next Generation (NG)
The AAIB has constituted a five member team to investigate the accident within five months. The team will “investigate, determine the probable cause (s), contributory factor(s) leading to the Accident and make recommendation(s) to avoid recurrence of such incident in future,” the DG explained.
The team comprises officials from safety regulatory body DGCA, AAIB as well as the Indian Air Force.
Immediately after the accident, the AAIB informed the global aviation safety watchdog International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) about the crash. The ICAO, headquartered in Montreal, Canada, passed on the details of the mishap to Boeing as well as the apex body for investigating civil transport crashes in the home country of the aerospace manufacturer - United State's National Transport Safety Board (NTSB).
