British investigators have reached the Air India plane crash site.
Officials from Britain’s Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) have been deployed to assist the Indian investigation into the disaster, which claimed at least 260 lives.
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, head of Air India’s parent company Tata, said the investigators were working with their American and Indian counterparts in Ahmedabad after what he described as one of the “darkest days in the Tata Group’s history”
“They have our full co-operation, and we will be completely transparent about the findings,” he said, adding that the cause of the tragedy remains unknown.
“We don’t know right now, but we will,” he said.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has also dispatched a team of consular specialists to work with the Indian authorities.
The news came after the recovery of the plane’s black box recorder that could answer questions about how the plane plummeted to earth.
A committee formed to investigate the root cause of the crash will report within three months, the Indian government’s ministry of civil aviation said.
The committee will have access to flight data, cockpit voice recordings and maintenance records.
The London Gatwick-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed around lunchtime on Thursday with 242 passengers and crew on board. All but one man, British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, died in the crash.
“Initially, I too thought that I was about to die, but then I opened my eyes and realised that I was still alive,” he told national broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed.
Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and a Canadian on board the flight bound for London’s Gatwick airport, as well as 12 crew members.
Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, visited the devastated neighbourhood on Friday and was also pictured by survivor Ramesh’s bedside.