KARACHI: French investigators probing the May 22 Pakistan Intern­ational Airlines (PIA) plane crash have anno­unced that downloading and decoding of the black box of the ill-fated aircraft has been completed.

The French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) on Friday said in a tweet that downloading and decoding of the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, the two components of the PK-8303 black box, “has ended. Analysis will continue”.

It said that the Paki­stan’s Aircraft Accident and Investigation Board (AAIB) “will publish at a later date a preliminary statement on the event based on downloaded data/ Pakistan’s AAIB is leading the investigation/current communication on their behalf”.

Aviation Minister Ghu­l­am Sarwar Khan had already announced that the preliminary report of the plane crash would be tabled in parliament on June 22.

Ninety-seven of the 99 passengers and crew members onboard the PIA flight were killed when the plane crashed into houses in Karachi’s Model Colony area on May 22. A teenage girl also lost her life on ground.

Airbus, being the manufacturer of the A320 aircraft had sent an 11-member team to Pakistan to offer technical assistance to AAIB investigators. The team had earlier this week left for France along with the FDR and CVR of the aircraft. AAIB President Air Commodore Usman Ghani also accompanied the French team.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2020