KUALA LUMPUR: A team of Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) investigators will leave for Florida this evening with the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the doomed Beechcraft Model 390 (Premier 1) which crashed in Elmina, Shah Alam, last week.
This comes after experts at a Singaporean laboratory had failed to retrieve recordings from the badly-damaged CVR.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the team, led by its head, Brigadier-General Tan Chee Kee, will leave at 7pm for the high-security laboratory of the manufacturer of the CVR in Florida on Monday for the data retrieval process.
"There was a slight delay because we had to wait for visa applications, which was only ready this afternoon, before they could fly.
"Our counterparts in the United States have given their assurances that the team will be allowed entry to the high-security OEM's (original equipment manufacturer) lab on Monday and we hope everything will go well with the retrieval process," he said.
Loke said he was also given assurances that the preliminarily crash report will be ready within 30 days of the Aug 17 crash.
He urged all quarters to be patient and not speculate about the crash, while giving AAIB the time to retrieve, gather and complete the report.
Loke said when local efforts and those of the Singaporean experts to process the CVR and its data memory puck failed, the AAIB was forced to turn to the manufacturer.
"Now, we are banking on the OEM's US lab to have the necessary specifications and expertise to help us recover the data and recording.
"Our counterparts in the US have agreed to grant our AAIB investigators all the necessary access, cooperation and help in decoding/retrieving all the necessary flight data.
"As of now, we are not sure how long this process would take or the security level access required to extricate the recording but rest assured, they won't spend another day there (than is necessary) upon gathering all the information needed to complete the crash report," he said.
Loke said the report on the investigation into the plane crash will be prepared by AAIB, with the help of the US National Transportation Safety Board.
He said NTSB and the US Federal Aviation Administration were asked to assist in the probe because the aircraft was registered in the US.
AAIB officers were also involved in the search for the black box and the CVR at the crash site since Day One.
On Aug 17, the Beechcraft Premier 1 was flying from Langkawi when it crashed just two minutes out from the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, killing all eight on board.
Also killed were two motorists who had been using the Guthrie Corridor Expressway, where the crash occurred.
Among the six passenger aboard the aircraft was Pahang's Pelangai assemblyman Datuk Seri Johari Harun, who was 53.
Others killed were Johari's special aide, Mohammad Taufiq Mohd Zaki, 37; pilots Shahrul Kamal Roslan 41, and Heikal Aras Abdul Azim, 45; Kharil Azwan Jamaludin, 43; Shaharul Amir Omar, 49; Mohamad Naim Fawwaz Mohamed Muaidi, 35; Idris Abdol Talib @ Ramali, 41; p-hailing rider Muhamad Hafiz Muhamad Salleh; 32; and, e-hailing driver Sharipudin Shaari, 51.