Mangalore crash: Missing part of black box found

After three days of intense search, the missing part of the black box of the ill-fated Air India Express flight has been found at the crash site.

The Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) of the crashed plane will give key details of the conversation between the Air Traffic Control (ATC) and the pilot and will help investigators ascertain what actually went wrong.

In one of the country's worst aviation disaster, 158 people were killed after the plane overshot the runway by 2,000 feet, going off the edge of Mangalore's table-top airport on Saturday. (Read: 158 killed in crash, eight survivors | Heroes of crash | The miracle of life)

Investigators had on Sunday retrieved the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Digital Flight Data Acquisition Unit (DFDAU), but the crucial DFDR could not be traced.

The CVR and the DFDR are known as the 'Black Box'. While the CVR captures radio transmissions, the DFDR logs actual flight conditions, including altitude, airspeed, heading, vertical acceleration and aircraft pitch. The DFDAU records short-duration flight parameters. (With PTI inputs)