Mumbai: India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has requested specialised technical assistance from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to extract critical data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the VT-SSK Learjet 45 that crashed in Baramati on January 28.
The crash, which occurred during a flight from Mumbai to Baramati, tragically claimed the lives of five people, including Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, his personal security officer, and three crew members.
The Learjet aircraft was equipped with two independent flight recorders, namely the digital flight data recorder (FDR) and the CVR. According to DGCA, both the recorders sustained fire damage due to exposure to intense heat for a prolonged period during the accident.
On Tuesday, the AAIB confirmed that investigators achieved a significant milestone by successfully downloading the data from the digital FDR. Manufactured by L3-Communications, the FDR was retrieved from the wreckage and processed at the AAIB’s flight recorder laboratory in Delhi.
However, the CVR, manufactured by American conglomerate Honeywell, presented a more complex challenge due to the post-impact fire, complicating the retrieval of audio recordings.
"The CVR is undergoing a detailed technical examination. Assistance has been sought from the accredited representative of the state of manufacture for specialised support in data retrieval," the AAIB stated.
The extraction of data from a fire-damaged CVR often requires clean-room environments and specialised software tools typically held by the NTSB or the original equipment manufacturers.
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The AAIB emphasised that the probe is being conducted in strict accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Annex 13 and the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017. By involving the NTSB, the AAIB is utilising international treaty rights to ensure no evidence is lost due to technical limitations.
“The AAIB is diligently following all prescribed technical and procedural protocols to ensure a comprehensive, objective and evidence-based investigation. The Bureau remains fully committed to transparency and will share further information at the appropriate stage of the investigation,” it stated.
The investigation body also urged all the stakeholders to refrain from speculation while the work continues. A preliminary report into the crash is expected to be released in the coming weeks, once the CVR data can be synchronised with the flight data.
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