MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) hopes that preliminary results of the investigation into Saturday’s Boeing 737-800 crash in Rostov-on-Don will be available in a month, IAC deputy head Sergey Zayko said on Monday.
"It is very hard to make forecasts when it will end. In favorable circumstances, we will get preliminary results in a month," Zayko told Rossiya 24 TV channel adding that the results will not be final.
The intermediate result will be announced after black boxes are decoded, he went on. "It will include factual information after we are confident that all parameters are correct, that we are doing everything right and that it does not contradict the facts," Zayko added.
He noted that black boxes make recordings on four channels, including separate channels of a pilot - aircraft commander and of a second pilot, as well as conversations inside the cabin via external microphone. "The situation in the cabin will be available (upon decoding black boxes) if it is recorded… Of course, this will be very helpful in the investigation. Part of this information is very important," Zayko said.
At the same time, IAC takes into consideration all factors, not only the results of black boxes decoding. "We do not consider one type of work to be more important that the other. It is impossible to predict what will be in the forefront at the end of the investigation, that’s why we are collecting any possible information at the start of the investigation. First of all, specialists are trying to avoid losing important information or its fragments," he added.
Zayko reminded that specialists have been working at the crash site all Sunday. "As a result of this enormous work which we managed to complete in two days, the airport has resumed operations today. All fragments (of the crashed plane) will be collected and analyzed," he noted.
The commitee is making preparations for extraction of information from the voice recorder of the Boeing jet.
"Now we continue preparatory works, upload software specially for that type of registrator," he told the Rossiya 24 television broadcaster on Monday.
The official state the situation with the voice recorder is more complicated, than with the parametric recorder.
"A data cable was damaged there, and we had to make a Roentgen analysis to see the damages..., since short circuit may cause loss of data."
The key objective, he said, is not to lose data and to secure the memory.
On Sunday, IAC opened the parametric registrator, restored the broken cable, studied the memory module and encrypted the information.
"The quality of records is good. The flight recorder was on until the plane hit the ground," he said on Sunday.
On March 19, at 3:42 a.m. Moscow time (0:42 a.m. UTC), FlyDubai’s Boeing 737-800 crashed at Rostov-on-Don’s airport during a second attempt to land in complicated weather conditions (strong side wind and rain). The plane served regular Flight FZ 981 from Dubai. The passenger jet with capacity for 189 passengers had 62 people aboard, including the crew. None has survived.