Images of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), hours after it was recovered from the Air India crash site in Ahmedabad, have surfaced.
The images were accessed exclusively by CNN-News18 and show the CVR gravely impacted by the fire that raged on after the plane crash on June 12.
The CVR and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) are together called the black box in common parlance.
Contrary to popular perception, these are painted deep orange in colour to facilitate easy detection at the crash site.
The CVR, recovered on Sunday, however, looks black, charred by the fire that raged on after the crash. The condition in which the device was found has raised concerns about the safety of the data stored in it.
CVR records radio transmissions and other sounds in the cockpit, such as conversations between the pilots and engine noises, and is a crucial discovery to help ascertain the possible cause of the Air India plane crash, which killed 270 persons, including 241 on board.
Earlier, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) had confirmed that only the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) of the ill-fated plane was found.
The officials confirmed the recovery of black boxes to PK Mishra, the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on Sunday inspected the site where the Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12 and also visited the civil hospital where the injured persons are undergoing treatment.
With the finding of both black boxes of the plane, it would be easy for investigators to ascertain the cause of the crash.
All but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 787-8 (AI 171) and another 29 persons, including five MBBS students, on the ground were killed when the London-bound aircraft crashed into the nearby campus of a medical college in Meghaninagar area and burst into flames, moments after it took off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
Mishra reviewed the accident site near the BJ Medical College in Meghaninagar, where senior officials from the state government, AAIB and Airports Authority of India briefed him on the sequence of events and immediate response measures, the release said.
Source: India Today