Pune: The flight data recorder (FDR), commonly known as blackbox, of the Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft which crashed here earlier this week, has been retrieved.
"The FDR of the aircraft has been retrieved and the data is being analysed," an Indian Air Force (IAF) spokesman from the Lohegaon air base said on Friday. The base, which is home to the squadrons of the Russian made aircraft, will continue with "emergent and limited flying" on Sukhoi-30 till the FDR information is fully analysed, the spokesman said.
The aircraft which had taken off from the Lohegaon airbase on a routine mission, presumably developed a technical snag and crashed at Wade Bholai village, about 20 km from Pune on Tuesday. Both the pilots ejected to safety.
The jet crashed at 1.30 PM, around 50 minutes after it took off, the officials said. This is the third time a Sukhoi fighter plane crashed since the aircrafts` induction into the IAF in 1997.
Meanwhile, Air Marshal A K Gogai, who is the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) of South West Air Command (SWAC) visited the Lohegaon airbase last night and submitted information on the sequence of events leading to the crash, the third one involving Sukhoi-30.
He also visited the injured pilots of the ill-fated sortie at a city hospital. PTI