Kozhikode plane crash: Black box of AI Express flight brought to DGCA lab at Delhi

Director General of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Arun Kumar on Sunday (August 9) said that the black box of Air India Express flight that crash-landed at Kerala's Kozhikode Airport on Friday (August 7) has been brought to Delhi and will be examined at DGCA lab.

Kumar added that soon DGCA will have all transcripts from recovered black boxes. "We are also going to talk to Boeing to examine aircraft’s original equipment and check for defects. Only after conducting a thorough and unbiased probe, can we tell what exactly happened," he added.

The DGCA chief said that after Mangalore air crash, suggestions were given by a committee regarding table-top runways and it was suggested by the committee to improve the pavement strength of Kozhikode airport. He added that the committee has also suggested to increase the runway and safety area of the airport. According to Kumar, the Airport Authority of India had recarpeted the runway and the strengthening of the runway was done in 2016.

Referring to the Kozhikode place crash, Kumar said that since it is an international airport, international aviation bodies can help DGCA in the investigation.

A total of 18 people died after an Air India Express flight with 190 onboard overshot and fell 35 metres off the end of the runway at the Kozhikode airport in treacherous conditions on Friday (August 7). The plane broke into three parts after falling into the gorge.

The Boeing 737 jet, on a Vande Bharat mission as flight AIX 1344 from Dubai, was bringing in Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic.