Mirage-2000 black box to be sent to France for decoding

BENGALURU: The black box of the ill-fated Mirage-2000, which crashed in the city on February 1, will be taken to France for decoding its data. The Indian Air Force (IAF), which is investigating the crash that killed two pilots, is reportedly sending the black box to obtain further details about the accident.

According to sources, the black box of the aircraft has to be dealt with carefully, as there has been some damage to the box too. For this reason, an IAF officer will be taking the part with him, where the designated agency will mine data to uncover the exact reason behind the crash. “French agencies will investigate the black box in presence of authorities from both IAF and HAL,” sources said.Meanwhile,the IAF has nominated Air Vice Marshal Tiwari of the National Flight Test Centre to ensure that a fair probe in the court of inquiry be conducted jointly with the HAL.

The development comes at a time when families of the deceased pilots, Squadron Leaders Samir Abrol and Siddartha Negi, are demanding accountability in the incident. Samir’s wife Garima Abrol recently posted a poem on Instagram blaming authorities for allowing the use of “outdated” machines. “While the bureaucracy enjoyed its corrupt cheese and wine. We give our warriors outdated machines to fight,” the poem read.The parents of Abrol and Negi had requested Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to investigate the accident.