Maina's cockpit voice recorder found

Jabalpur, July 20 (UNI) The cockpit voice recorder and digital data recorder of the Chhattisgarh government helicopter Maina, which crashed on July 14 in Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat district, were found today by a 15-member DGCA probe team headed by Director (Air Safety Wing) P Shah.

The devices, found near Mohal Khurda village after a rough two-hour search, will be analysed at either Delhi or Mumbai.

''The team was conveyed by chopper from Raipur to Balaghat's Lanji tahsil, reached the heavily-forested site on foot and investigated the place for about six hours before returning to Raipur this evening,'' DIG (Balaghat Range) G Janardan told UNI over phone.

The officer said that the team's preliminary estimate was that the helicopter dashed a rock while attempting an emergency landing.

The wreckage of Maina, which lost contact with ATC about half-an-hour after taking off from Bhopal, and bodies of four crew members were found on July 17.

UNI