Elmina crash: CVR sent to US, 'last' hope of data extraction

SHAH ALAM - The crash involving a Beechcraft 390 Premier 1 plane carrying eight passengers and crew in Bandar Elmina shocked the country.

No one expected that the flight that was scheduled to arrive in less than three minutes at the Subang Airport to end in tragedy when the plane suddenly plunged at the location.

What was even more sad was that the investigation process into the cause of the crash seemed to have reached a dead end when the plane's cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was badly damaged.

Previously, the country's efforts to extract data by sending the CVR to a laboratory in Singapore had failed.

Following that, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said it will be sent to the manufacturing plant in the United States (US).

Yesterday, it was reported that Loke said the Air Accident Investigation Bureau (BSKU) team leader has left for the US to send the 'memory puck' found in the CVR to be extracted and analysed.

Despite speculations from aviation experts that efforts to extract the data were slim, Loke said his side will not give up and will try to do their best.

The BSKU team leader said the preliminary report of the incident would be issued within 30 days after the accident occurred.

On Aug 23, former Malaysia Airlines (MAS) chief pilot Captain Datuk Nik Ahmad Huzlan Nik Hussain said if the phase of extracting data from the CVR failed even though it has been sent to the manufacturing plant in Florida, US, then they can only make an assumption of what happened.

Meanwhile, according to aviation expert Captain (B) Abdul Rahmat Omar Mohd Haniff, if data from the CVR failed to be extracted, there was still a way to find out the cause of the crash, which was through micro and macro research of important parts of the plane.

It is hoped that the process of extracting the data in the US will be done successfully so that there are no speculations about the plane crash.