Elmina plane crash: Investigation expected to take a week - Expert

KUALA LUMPUR: Investigation on the Beechcraft Model 390 (Premier 1) aircraft which crashed onto Guthrie Corridor Expressway (GCE) near Bandar Elmina, Shah Alam is expected to take a week if the plane black box is not damaged, said a flight industry expert.

Former chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) Datuk Seri Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the chances of damage to the black box are slim as it is made especially to withstand heat, fire and water.

"When I was active in cockpit voice recorder (CVR) investigation on MH17 tragedy in which the aircraft plunged fell 33,000 feet to the ground...we were still able to download the CVR, the content was clear," he said in an interview on Jendela Fikir over Bernama Radio today.

Azharuddin, who is now a member of MYAirline board of directors explained that the black box has the CVR wrapped with various materials and could withstand accident impact as well as protect the chip in it.

The former Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general said the CVR is very useful to investigators to conduct accurate analysis apart from using the dash cam recording handed to them.

"At the time of the incident, the weather conditions were good and two minutes before landing it was said that the air control centre lost contact with the pilot and they found a plume of smoke (from the location of the incident) and when called, no one answered from the plane.

"In some of the 'dash cam' footage, the plane plunged towards the earth and this confused the investigation, so we need to see all the evidence found at the scene," he said.

Yesterday, the tragedy of the crashed plane claimed 10 lives involving six passengers and two crew members of the light aircraft, while the other two were civilians, a motorcyclist and a car driver who were passing by the scene.

At the time of the incident, the ill-fated plane was on a flight from Langkawi to Subang and had been cleared to land at 2.48 pm.

-- BERNAMA