Investigators intensified their efforts into the search on the third consecutive day Friday for black box and cockpit voice recorder of Airblue plane that crashed into Margalla Hills on Wednesday, killing all 152 on board. Investigators are focusing on recovery of black box and the flight data recorder, which could help provide valuable clues to the crash, said Binyameen, DIG Operations of Islamabad Police.
He said the search for human remains was called off on Thursday evening as almost all the bodies and charred body parts were recovered and handed over to the families. "We have recovered remains of all the dead bodies from Margalla Hills and now the focus is on investigation and we are searching for any clue which could help ascertain the actual causes of the tragic incident," he told media.
He said heavy downpour on Thursday hampered the search but the aviation experts and other investigators resumed work after the weather cleared off on Friday. To a question, he said the area was cordoned immediately after the crash and all the belongings of the victims found so far are in the custody of a Magistrate. "The families would be called to hand over the belongings upon identification after ending the search operation."
A spokesman of Capital Development Authority, Ramzan Sajid said the investigators visited the crash site for recovery of black box, besides looking find some lead," he added. Meanwhile, a spokesman of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) said 95 of 152 bodies have been identified so far of which 78 bodies were handed over to their families. The spokesman said the remaining bodies would be handed over as per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).