The second black box from the Air India Boeing 787 passenger plane that crashed on Thursday in Ahmedabad, in northwestern India, was found yesterday, Sunday, Indian authorities announced.
The black box (ed. the cockpit voice recorder) has been recovered, Dr. P.K. Mishra, a close aide to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said in a statement.
The other black box, the QAR (quick access recorder), which contains data on all flight parameters, such as speed, position, altitude, angle of attack, etc., was recovered on Friday, the day after the accident that killed at least 279 people.
Only one person on board, a British national of Indian origin, survived when the plane crashed seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad, according to the latest death toll released on Saturday.
Thirty-eight people on the ground, mostly doctors, medical students and their family members, also died when the long-haul plane bound for London crashed into buildings in the city.
The Indian Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has begun conducting a “detailed investigation” and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) “is conducting a parallel investigation because the aircraft was of American manufacture,” Dr. Mishra recalled.
Air accident investigation agencies in the US and Britain have announced they are sending teams to assist their Indian counterparts.
Experts have pointed out that it is still too early to speculate about the causes of the disaster, which is among the worst in recent years.
Videos circulating on social media sites show the aircraft taking off but then, unable to gain altitude, falling to the ground and exploding.
India's civil aviation authority on Friday ordered "preventive" inspections of all Air India Boeing 787s, particularly their engines, wingtips and taxiing systems.
Source: protothema.gr
