French team returns home after completing PK-8303 crash probe task

KARACHI: The visiting team of French experts that arrived here on May 26 to extend assistance in the PK-8303 crash probe returned to France on Monday morning upon completion of their task, ARY News reported.

The French team along with two members of the Pakistani Aircraft Accident and Investigation Board boarded a Paris-bound flight at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi. They also took the ill-fated plane’s black box and cockpit voice recorder with them to begin work on decoding them.

The team returned home after completing the task that included a detailed examination of the crash site, runway, engine parts, air traffic control system, and finding the cockpit voice recorder.

Read More: Construction experts to begin operation to pull out PK-8303 engine from damaged building

France’s Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) in a tweet on Saturday said, “the mission on site is about to be completed”.

It said: “technical work on FDR and CVR” of the ill-fated aircraft would begin in France on June 2.”

(1/2) ⚠️ Accident @Airbus #A320 AP-BLD @Official_PIA / the mission on site is about to be completed / @BEA_Aero @Airbus @SafranEngines @CFM_engines & Pakistan’s AAIB team will then fly to France.#PIA8303 pic.twitter.com/IMKOUC4xLH

— BEA ✈️ 🚁🛩 🇫🇷 (@BEA_Aero) May 30, 2020

Read More: Technical work on plane’s black box to begin on June 2

Except for two survivors, all 97 passengers and crew members of the aircraft that crashed into a residential area near Karachi airport were confirmed dead. However, no resident of the Model Colony’s Jinnah Garden, where the plane crashed, was among the deceased.