Mangalore/New Delhi, May 23: Pilot error appears to be the prima facie cause of the Air India Express crash, say aviation officials who today found the plane’s cockpit voice recorder.
Investigators rummaging through the debris of Flight IX 812 that crashed here yesterday killing 158 people have not recovered the flight data recorder yet.
The two devices hold the clue to what caused the Boeing 737-800 to overshoot the tabletop runway and explode after touchdown.
“Pilot error appears to be the prima facie cause of the accident,” said an official of the directorate-general of civil aviation (DGCA).
“The key findings would come from the DVR (digital or cockpit voice recorder) since it would have recorded exchanges between the pilot and the co-pilot and if they had had any disagreement,” the official said.
The civil aviation ministry said the DVR had been affected by fire but was expected to yield the desired information. It records radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit such as the pilot’s conversation with the air traffic controller and engine noises.
The plane’s digital flight data acquisition unit, which records short-duration flight data, processes them and routes them to the flight data recorder, has also been found.
The investigators have already replayed the tapes from the air traffic control (ATC) that would reveal its exchanges with the pilots, including the last conversation.
They are still searching for the flight data recorder, which records actual flight conditions (or performance parameters), including altitude, airspeed, heading, vertical acceleration and aircraft pitch.
This is called the black box in new-generation aircraft.
Aviation minister Praful Patel told CNN-IBN: “You cannot rule out a human error factor. Certainly all parameters looked normal for a normal touchdown.”
He, however, cautioned against jumping to conclusions before the inquiry was completed.It would take at least a week to analyse the DVR.
A PTI report said the throttle was found in a forward position suggesting the pilot may have attempted a final thrust to take off seconds before the crash.
Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav said 128 bodies had been identified and handed over to the families and 12 were yet to be named. Post-mortem was being carried out on 18 bodies.
He announced an interim compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the victims above 12 years of age, Rs 5 lakh for those below 12 years and Rs 2 lakh for those injured.
“This will be over and above the relief of Rs 2 lakh to the family of each victim announced by the Prime Minister,” he said.
A civil aviation ministry spokesperson said in Delhi the DGCA had completed preliminary investigation of the navigational, aerodrome and runway facilities that existed at the time of the accident.
Records pertaining to the plane and crew, such as engineering, operations, training, ATC, fire-fighting and allied services, have been taken over for analysis.
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