Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from the crashed Air India flight, a key step in uncovering what caused last week’s de@dly accident.
The voice recorder was in the Boeing 787 aircraft’s second black box, which Indian authorities said they had found on Sunday. The first, containing the flight data recorder, was located within 28 hours of Thursday’s disaster in Ahmedabad, in which at least 279 people died.
Most of the victims were onboard flight AI171 bound for London Gatwick, all but one of whom died after the plane crashed into buildings moments after failing to properly take off from Ahmedabad airport.
A mayday call was sent by the flight captain, Sumeet Sabharwal, seconds after the plane left the runway.
No evidence or explanation has yet been shared from the investigation, led by Indian officials with assistance from the UK and US. They were reported to be initially focusing on engine failure and issues with the wing flaps and landing gear to trace the causes of one of the world’s worst-ever plane crashes.
Most relatives of the 279 known victims, 38 of whom were killed on the ground, were still waiting on Monday for results of DNA testing before health officials could return the bodies of their ones.
About 80 of the deceased had been identified by late on Sunday, according to a doctor at Ahmedabad’s civil hospital, Rajnish Patel. “This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only,” Patel said.
