IAF hopes to get data from the damaged black box of the ill-fated C-130J Super Hercules, which crashed on Friday last near Gwalior, from the US in the next two to three days. It will enable the experts here to find out the cause of mishap killing all five crew members aboard.
Giving this information here on Monday, officials said since the damage to the black box was not major, original manufacturers lockheed Martin will be able to retrieve the data in a short time and relay it to IAF in the next two days or so.
The decision to send the black box or Flight Data Recorder to US was taken after IAF experts detected that the connectors of the black box were damaged along with the card inside the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). IAF wanted to avoid any loss of data while analysing the data recorder here and therefore sought US assistance, officials said.
They also refuted reports about fake Chinese parts fitted in C-130Js and said there are no Chinese components in six planes bought from the US. This clarification came in the backdrop of a US Senate probe claiming that counterfeit parts in the display systems could cause the plane to lose data or blank altogether mid flight.
India had contacted the US and lockheed Martin in 2012 after the first probe report came in public domain and asked them to pinpoint the suspected fake components. These parts were sent in batches to the US for checks and most of the parts were found to be genuine.
Defence Minister AK Antony had also informed parliament two years back that there were no Chinese parts in the six C-130Js supplied to IAF.