Elmina crash: Analysis period depends on CVR condition - Azharuddin

KUALA LUMPUR - The discovery of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the crashed aircraft in Bandar Elmina is an important find to understand the cause of the tragedy.

Former Civil Aviation Department director-general Datuk Seri Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the CVR had a chip that could be downloaded by the Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) to gain the latest information regarding the tragic incident.

"Alhamdulillah, the CVR was found and it would be sent to the lab, they (AAIB) have their own lab to download what was on the CVR chip to listen on the conversation or any sounds before the incident occurred," he said when interviewed at the Awani Bulletin programme on Friday.

Azharuddin said the question now was the condition and the function of the CVR found.

He stated the duration of the CVR analysis depended on the condition of the device.

"It's depends on the condition, the question is whether the CVR chip is still functional? Because it would often be usable because the CVR was made to withstand many conditions including being plunged underwater for an analysis to be done. This was found on land.

"And we can't simply release a statement saying the analysis would be done in a week or two, or two to three days, it depends on the conditions of the CVR whether it was broken or damaged," he explained.

Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said the AAIB team successfully found the CVR from the aircraft on Thursday and had given it to the lab to be analysed.

Commenting further Hussein said the CVR represented one of two components of the black box of the Beechcraft 390 (Premier 1) aircraft that crashed in Bandar Elmina, Shah Alam on Thursday.

Hussein informed that search operations to detect the flight data recorder (FDR) was underway. - AWANI