KUALA LUMPUR – Singapore authorities have been unable to retrieve data from the memory puck in the cockpit voice recorder recovered from the plane wreckage in Bandar Elmina, Shah Alam last week.
As such, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the recording device will now be sent to a team in Florida, United States, where the aircraft’s original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is located.
“In an early report this morning from the AAIB (Air Accident Investigation Bureau), I was told that Singapore’s TSIB (Transport Safety Investigation Bureau) was unsuccessful in retrieving data from the memory puck.
“There were certain technical issues and restrictions that prevented the TSIB team from retrieving the data,” Loke said in a press conference here, after officiating the Malaysia Aviation Safety Seminar 2023.
He added that AAIB chief Colonel Tan Chee Kee of the Royal Malaysian Air Force will be returning from Singapore later today, following which arrangements will be made to send the memory puck to Florida.
“We’re waiting for (Tan’s) return. The memory puck should be sent to Florida by either later tonight or sometime tomorrow.”
He also said that while AAIB and TSIB had conducted teleconference sessions with the Beechcraft Model 390 (Premier 1) aircraft’s OEM in Florida.
However, troubleshooting attempts have been fruitless, prompting the decision to send the device to the US.
Stressing that cost is not an issue for the government as it undertakes efforts to obtain answers on the sudden crash, Loke said it is the inherent responsibility of AAIB and the ministry to make sure that victims’ families and the public receive closure after the fatal incident.
“In order to get answers on what happened (related to the crash), we have to accept help offered by foreign authorities.
“It’s not a question of our ego as a country. If we could, of course we would want to carry out the analysis (of the memory puck) in Malaysia, but this is an emergency situation.
“If we had tried to get the necessary tools (for the analysis), it would have taken months,” he said when questioned by reporters on Malaysia’s inability to conduct its own analysis on the memory puck.
The crash last Thursday (August 17) resulted in the deaths of 10 individuals, including two crew members, six passengers, one motorcyclist and one motorcar driver.
The flight crashed two minutes before it was due to land at the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang after its departure from the Langkawi International Airport.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia later said that the aircraft did not make any mayday calls prior to the accident. – August 22, 2023
