Glitch in Sukhoi-30 voice recorder tape

The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the Sukhoi-30 MKI that crashed on October 14 near Pune, leading to the grounding of 200 Russian-origin fighter jets, stopped recording pilot communications minutes before the crash, said a top government official familiar with the investigation.

The glitch has further deepened the mystery surrounding the crash, the fifth accident involving a Su-30 during the last five years. The official said there was no record of conversations in the cockpit at least five minutes before the crash as the tape had run out.

The development is significant as the pilots of the fighter plane had reported an unprecedented “automatic seat ejection” without their command, but the Russian specialists assisting the probe have ruled out the freak ejection theory.

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