Black Box yet to be traced, 22 bodies yet to be identified

Ramnath Shenoy and C S Narayanan Kutty
Mangalore, May 24 (PTI) Investigators hunted in vain for
the crucial Data Recorder--the 'black box'--of the crashed Air
India plane for the second full day Monday and were studying
tapes of air traffic control contact with the aircraft in its
final moments.
Bodies of 22 persons were meanwhile yet to be identified
prolonging the agony for grieving families waiting to claim
their loved ones and the results of DNA tests were awaited.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent his "deep
condolences" to the families of those who died and held a
one-minute silence before a news conference in New Delhi.
Operations for the search of the orange-coloured Digital
Flight Data Recorder or the 'black box'--which had been the
focus of investigators-- were suspended in the evening and
will be resumed on Tuesday. It is mounted in the tail of an
aircraft.
A preliminary replay and analysis of the audio taped
conversation between the Air Traffic Control at the Bajpe
Airport and the pilots of the Boeing 737-800, moments before
the crash, was carried out Monday, official sources said.
Investigators had Sunday recovered the Cockpit Voice
Recorder (CVR) and Digital Flight Data Acquisition Unit
(DFDAU) from the wreckage of the ill-fated flight from
Dubai that crashed at Bajpe airport here on Saturday killing
all but eight of the 166 persons on board. DFDAU is similar to
the 'black box' Digital Flight Data Recorder(DFDR) but stores
information only for a shorter period of time.
The two on-board devices would be brought to New Delhi
soon for a detailed analysis to help determine the causes of
the country's worst air accident in a decade.
The CVR and DFDAU, which record the cockpit audio and
most of the aircraft's technical details, would be brought to
the DGCA headquarters in New Delhi for analysis, the sources
said.
The airline meanwhile denied lax safety claims saying
Air India Express meets all regulatory requirements and has
been always well equipped to handle the operations and
maintenance of its fleet to established standards.
Pilots and engineers were fully trained and qualified,
while regulators had audited and cleared every aspect of its
work, the airline said in a statement while describing Air
India Express as a "world-class international low-cost
carrier". (MORE) PTI RS
RBT


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