Singapore helping Malaysian authorities to extract plane crash data from jet’s black box
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SINGAPORE - Singapore’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) is assisting Malaysian authorities in the investigation of last Thursday’s plane crash in Selangor.
TSIB experts successfully extracted the “memory puck” from the plane’s cockpit voice recorder (CVR), or black box, last Saturday, Malaysia’s transport minister Anthony Loke said at a press conference on Monday.
The memory puck, which was found to be in good condition, is believed to contain data of the final 30 minutes before the crash, reported Free Malaysia Today.
“We received an offer for technical assistance from the Singaporean authorities. Their experts came to Malaysia on Friday, and on the next day, we successfully opened the CVR and extracted the ‘memory puck’ component,” said Mr Loke.
But since the Malaysian authorities lacked equipment to extract data from the memory puck, it was sent to Singapore, he added.
Mr Loke also said he hoped the public would give the authorities time to analyse the recording, and that a report on preliminary findings of the crash would be released within a month, reported The Star.
When contacted, Singapore’s Ministry of Transport (MOT) confirmed that the TSIB was assisting its Malaysian counterparts – the Malaysia Air Accident Investigation Bureau (MAAIB) – but did not reveal further details.
“As with protocol in international investigations, any details pertaining to the investigation should be routed to the MAAIB for their comment,” said an MOT spokesman.
A light private business jet, operated by flight provider Jet Valet, had crashed into a road last Thursday near the Guthrie Corridor Expressway in Elmina township, killing its six passengers and two flight crew members as well as two road users – a Grab driver and a motorcyclist.
The plane, a Beechcraft 390 Premier 1, had taken off from Langkawi island about 40 minutes earlier and was less than 10km from Subang airport, where it was supposed to land.
Malaysia’s Transport Ministry has confirmed that one of the crash victims was Pahang state assemblyman Johari Harun, 54, who was fielded as a new Barisan Nasional candidate in the 2022 general election. He won the Pelangai state seat in the Bentong parliamentary constituency.
