French experts decode crashed plane’s black boxes

Operation to remove engine, landing gear from crash site begins tomorrow

KARACHI: French exports investigating the May 22 crash of an Airbus A320 operated by the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) have decoded the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder in the presence of two Pakistani investigators.

Yannick Malinge, Chief Product Safety Officer at the Airbus informed in a letter to the Pakistani authorities that Investigations into the PIA plane crash were under way and the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorders had been analysed and listened to.

Both the black boxes were taken to the French city of Le Bourget, near Paris, by an 11-member team of Airbus, the manufacturer of the aircraft, on Monday, following their investigation of the crash site in Model Colony of Karachi.

A two-member Pakistani team led by the head of Pakistan Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) Air Commodore Usman Ghani also accompanied the investigators. The letter said that at the current stage of investigation, Airbus did not have any specific safety recommendations for airlines.

The A320 crashed short of the runway at Karachi airport on May 22, killing 97 people on board after the pilots reported the loss of both engines. Two passengers survived and there reports of significant damage on the ground.

Officials said that the engine and landing gear of the crashed PIA plane, which were still lodged on the roof of a multi-storey house in Jinnah Garden, would be removed on Monday (tomorrow). According to sources the removal process would be completed by Tuesday.

For the removal operation heavy missionary including large cranes would deployed, the sources said, adding that efforts were also afoot to ensure that the affected building did not cave in and further damage to the wrecked parts of the ill-fated plane could be prevented.

The sources said that the technical teams of the Pakistan Air Force, Civil Aviation Authority and the PIA would be present at the crash site to oversee the operation. After the removal of the debris, team of the Sindh Building Control Authority would be allowed to conduct the survey of the damage.

PIA spokesman Abdullah Khan said the work of removing the remaining parts of the plane, buried under the concrete debris of the roof of the two-storey building would begin in two days. He added modern machinery would be used in the operation.