The black boxes from the Yeti Airlines aircraft that went down in Nepal on January 15 and killed all 72 persons on board, including five Indians, will be analyzed by the Ministry of Transport in Singapore. This tragedy was Nepal’s worst aviation disaster in the last 30 years.
After taking off from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport, Yeti Airlines Flight 691 was only minutes away from landing when it crashed on the bank of the Seti River in the resort city of Pokhara, which is located between the old airport and the new airport.
Fifty-three Nepalese passengers, fifteen people from other countries, including five people from India, and four members of the crew were all on board the airplane when it went down in the mountains.
In a statement released on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Transport confirmed that the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) of the Ministry of Transport would assist in retrieving and reading the data from the flight recorder of the twin-engine ATR-72 jet.
The investigation will be taken out at the Flight Recorder Readout Facility, which was established by the Transport Safety Investigation Branch in 2007.
According to the story in The Straits Times newspaper, which quoted a spokesman for the investigation authority, “all investigation-related material, including the status of investigations and the conclusions, would be handled by the Nepalese investigative authority.”
Both the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), sometimes known as “black boxes,” are devices that capture and retain data about airplanes. Investigations into aviation mishaps may benefit greatly from the information they give.
Shoebox-sized and brilliant orange in color, black boxes are of the same shape as shoeboxes.
The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) captures talks between pilots as well as announcements made by flight attendants. The FDR contains a listing of hundreds of flight information, including the temperature, altitude, and speed of the aircraft. It may be possible to include both of these tools in a single apparatus.
According to a source from the Washington Post, the Nepali investigative team will go to Singapore on Friday with the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.
The investigation of the black boxes is not going to cost anything and is likely to take one week, according to a report from The Kathmandu Post published on Wednesday.
An agreement of understanding between Singapore’s Ministry of Transport and Nepal’s Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation to collaborate in aircraft accident investigations was signed in February 2020. This allows Singapore to conduct an assessment of the boxes.
“The MOU encompasses the use of investigation facilities and equipment, including the flight recorder reading facility, training, and observer attachments,” stated a spokeswoman for the MOT.