MANGALORE:  Investigators on Sunday retrieved the Cockpit Voice Recorder and the Digital Flight Data Acquisition Unit from the wreckage of the ill-fated Air India Express which is expected to throw light on what went wrong in Saturday’s crash that left 158 people dead.

The Cockpit Voice Recorder and the Digital Flight Data Acquisition Unit, which record cockpit conversation and all technical details, have been traced from the debris of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft which overshot the runway and burst into flames after plunging into a ravine.
The throttle in the cockpit, which was extricated from the debris, was found in a forward position suggesting that the pilot may have attempted a final thrust to take off seconds before the crash.
A civil aviation ministry statement in Delhi said the CVR was affected by fire but was expected to yield the desired information.
While the CVR captures radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit, such as the pilot’s voices and engine noises, the DFDAU records short-duration flight parameters.
However, search for the Digital Flight Data Recorder continues, the statement said. Airline officials had earlier claimed that this too had been recovered.
The DFDR records actual flight conditions, including altitude, airspeed, heading, vertical acceleration and aircraft pitch.
The instruments will be brought to Delhi on Monday to be examined by air safety directorate of the DGCA to ascertain the causes for the crash, official sources said.
In Mangalore, the Air India CMD, Mr Arvind Jadhav announced an interim compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the victims, above 12 years of age, Rs 5 lakh for those below 12 years and Rs 2 lakh for those injured.
“This will be over and above the relief of Rs 2 lakh to the families of each victim announced by the Prime Minister,” he told reporters here.
He said while 128 bodies have been identified and handed over the families, 12 were yet to be identified. Postmortem was being carried out on 18 bodies.
Teams, probing the worst air tragedy in the country in a decade, continued sifting through the wreckage to find all material required for the investigation being carried out by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
Experts of the US Federal Aviation Authority, Boeing and air safety firm Kenyon will be assisting in deciphering the Black Box and the CVR.
A forensic team from Hyderabad carried out DNA tests on the bodies that have been charred beyond recognition.
158 people, including six crewmembers, were killed when Air India’s budget carrier’s flight IX-812 from Dubai crashed at the Bajpe airport on Saturday morning after overshooting the 8,000-feet runway. Eight persons had a miraculous escape.
The Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Praful Patel said a human error factor cannot be ruled out but made it clear that the report of the DGCA inquiry should be awaited before coming to any conclusion.
“You cannot rule out a human error factor. Certainly all parameters looked normal for a normal touchdown,” he told CNN-IBN.
Mr Patel also said he had spoken to the DGCA to go into issues relating to small and difficult airports.
An official spokesperson said the analysis of the CVR and other instruments of the aircraft would take about a fortnight. The analysis of huge amounts of records emanating from the CVR, DFDAU or DFDR would take a couple of weeks.
The DGCA has appointed its director, air safety, Mr Bir Singh Rai as the inspector of accidents to carry out the enquiry assisted by other experts.
The tapes retrieved from the air traffic control tower at the Bajpe airport have been replayed and a detailed analysis was being carried out, the civil aviation ministry said.
Besides, preliminary probe of navigational, aerodrome and runway facilities, existing at the time of the incident, has been completed, it said, adding that all records pertaining to the aircraft, engineering, operations, training, firefighting and allied services have been taken over for detailed analysis.
All the eight survivors of the crash were responding well to treatment at various hospitals here. Doctors said the victims who had suffered cuts, bruises and burn injuries, were out of danger.
Heart-rending scenes were witnessed at the local hospitals as grieving relatives collected the victims’ mortal remains. In one case, two families from Kerala claimed the same body and authorities said it will hand over only after a DNA test.
The bodies of four crewmembers were among those yet to be identified. The DNA samples of all the unidentified bodies have been sent for testing to Hyderabad.
Dazed relatives and friends of the victims thronged the Government Wenlock Hospital and made efforts through the night at the mortuary to identify their near and dear ones, many of whom were charred to death.
Air India arranged for counsellors for the relatives of the victims as well as their own crew and staffers, who were traumatised and shocked by the scenes of devastation.
Regarding the compensation package, Air India said it was in talks with insurance companies, including Reliance Insurance and General Insurance Company.
The airline said it had made arrangements to provide coffins to family members of the victims to shift the bodies after identification.