New Delhi, February 17 The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said on Tuesday that it has sought special assistance to retrieve data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 45 aircraft that crashed near Baramati last month.
Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, and four others were killed in the fatal crash of the VSR Ventures-owned aircraft on January 28.
In a statement, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said that the aircraft was equipped with two independent flight recorders.
Both recorders were exposed to intense heat for a prolonged period during the accident and sustained fire damage, it said.
According to AAIB, the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR), manufactured by L3-Communications, has been successfully downloaded at its Flight Recorder Laboratory.
"The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), manufactured by Honeywell, is undergoing detailed technical examination. Assistance has been sought from the Accredited Representative of the State of Manufacture for specialised support in data retrieval," the probe agency said.
In this case, the state of manufacture is the US.
Requesting all stakeholders to avoid speculation, AAIB said it was diligently following all prescribed technical and procedural protocols to ensure a comprehensive, objective and evidence-based investigation.
It also said that the investigation was being conducted strictly in accordance with the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017 and the international standards and recommended practices of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) Annex 13.
Last week, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said that the preliminary report on the crash of the Learjet 45 aircraft VT-SSK would be released soon.
