Malaysia investigates cause of plane crash that killed 10

Malaysian air accident investigators were analyzing on Friday the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of a light plane that crashed into a road near the capital, killing all eight people on board and two on the ground.

The Beechcraft Model 390 aircraft exploded into a fireball on impact when it crashed Thursday in Selangor state west of the capital Kuala Lumpur, with thick black smoke seen rising from the site, video clips from the scene showed.

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All eight people on board – six passengers and two flight crew – as well as two motorists on the four-lane road were killed, police said.

Family members console each other at the crash site of a plane on a street in Shah Alam, Malaysia's Selangor state on August 17, 2023. (AFP)

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Friday that the CVR, which was found Thursday night, was being analyzed and that the incident would be investigated.

The CVR records what happens in the cockpit, including the final conversations of the flight crew and other sounds.

“I have instructed for investigations to be sped up and done thoroughly. We will make the results public as soon as possible once analysis is concluded,” he told reporters.

Like some other small planes, the aircraft was fitted with only a CVR, and did not have a flight data recorder, Malaysian police chief Razarudin Husain said Friday.

He said search operations were “95 percent complete” and were expected to wrap up within the day.

“So far, we have recovered all human remains of the victims,” he said.

The plane took off from the northern resort island of Langkawi and was approaching Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Selangor at the time of the crash, civil aviation authority chief Norazman Mahmud said on Thursday.

Mohamad Syahmie Mohamad Hashim, a former member of the Malaysian air force who happened to witness the lead-up to the crash, said he saw the plane flying erratically and then heard an explosion.

He told reporters Thursday he rushed to the scene and saw debris from the aircraft as well as a “human body on fire.”

Transport chief Loke said earlier that the plane had been cleared to land but “veered to the right of the landing flight path” before it crashed.

In September of 1977, a Japan Airlines plane bound for Singapore crashed near the site of Thursday’s disaster. Forty-five people survived, but 34 lost their lives in the crash.

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