YSR chopper black box being sent to US aviation agency

The cockpit voice recorder of the Bell 430 helicopter which crashed in the Nallamalla forests of Andhra Pradesh on September 2, killing Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others, is being sent to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in Washington for forensic examination by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The black box was recovered by an anti-Naxal Greyhounds team on September 5 and handed over to an inquiry committee appointed by the DGCA. Partially damaged and burnt, the black box was sent to Delhi for retrieving the last distress signals by the pilot but investigators failed to open it.

The DGCA team, headed by R K Tyagi, today decided to send the black box to the NTSB, the independent US Federal government agency proficient in investigating aviation accidents. Agencies here are counting on the NTSB as they try to determine the cause of the crash.

Meanwhile, the CBI, which is also investigating the case, sent its Multi Disciplinary Investigative Team (MDIT) to the crash spot last week along with DGCA officials to gather forensic evidence.

YSR and four others, flying to Chittoor from Hyderabad, went missing in bad weather. The chopper wreckage was found 24 hours later.

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