PIA plane crash: Technical work to download flight data completes, analysis underway

PARIS: France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), in a statement on Friday, said that "technical work" to download and decode the flight data recorder information as well as the cockpit voice recorder data from the Airbus jet that had crashed in Pakistan is complete.

It said the work was carried out at the request of Pakistan’s Aircraft Accident and Investigation Board (AAIB) and now analysis of the data will commence.

According to the statement by BEA, the Pakistan investigation board “will publish at a later date a preliminary statement on the event based on downloaded data”. It said that the Pakistan board “is leading the investigation” and the communication is “on their behalf”.

Meanwhile, the aircraft manufacturer Airbus also issued a statement confirming that the blackbox data had been decoded. “A technical review of the data is currently underway,” said Airbus, adding that Pakistan’s aircraft accident board will itself release an initial report on the findings.