MULTAN, July 16: A three-member team of foreigners visited the Fokker plane crash site here on Sunday in a bid to ascertain the causes of the July 10 tragedy that left 45 people dead.

The team included Holger Litzenberg, the aircraft accident investigator, and Mike L. Webber, the principal investigator engineering, both from Rolls Royce, the company that manufactured the engines used in Fokker planes, and Arthur Reekers, the air-worthiness certification engineer from Fokker.

Captain Shahnawaz Dara, the senior vice president of PIA Flight Safety and Health Safety Environment (HSE), told APP that black box or the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) would be sent to Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB), UK, to decipher the recording from DFDR and CVR.

“They have an advanced technology and sophisticated equipment to do this and a request to seek time from AAIB will be sent on Monday.”

He said that the engine of the ill-fated Fokker had reached Karachi where it would be examined in an effort to ascertain the cause of the accident.

The team of foreigners would also visit Karachi where it would hold meetings with PIA experts and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) officials, said Captain Dara.

He said the crash site would now be cleared of the plane wreckage as the investigation teams had completed their visits and over 1000 photographs had been taken besides a detailed video footage.

He said the PIA and CAA had the expertise to find out causes of the accident but given the magnitude of the tragedy it was appropriate to seek opinion from foreign experts.—APP