On 25 December 2012, a Fokker 100 aircraft, registered XY-AGC, collided with terrain on approach to Heho Airport, Myanmar, fatally injuring one of the aircraft's occupants and a motorist on the ground.
The Myanmar Accident Investigation Bureau (MAIB) is responsible for investigating this occurrence. As part of its investigation, the MAIB requested assistance from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in the recovery and download of data from the aircraft's Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) units. In accordance with clause 5.23 of Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation (ICAO Annex 13), the ATSB appointed an accredited representative to assist the MAIB and initiated an investigation under the Australian Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003.
Following receipt of the CVR and FDR units on 21 January 2013, both units were successfully downloaded in accordance with the relevant manufacturer's instructions. The download and data recovery operations were overseen by representatives of the MAIB and an Accredited Representative from the Dutch Safety Board (DSB). During preparations for the download process, ATSB specialists found that the crash survivable memory units (CSMU's) from the both recorders had suffered damage from fire exposure. The CSMU is the module which carries the solid state chips that contain the recorded information. The CVR CSMU was dismantled and the data recovered using data retrieval techniques appropriate for an accident-damaged flight recorder. However, the FDR CSMU had sustained a significantly greater degree of thermal damage and required specialised data recovery techniques involving recovery and downloading of individual chips. The data recovered from the discrete chips was later compiled into a single coherent data file using a specialised utility provided by the recorder manufacturer.
The downloaded audio and flight data was examined and confirmed as containing detail from the accident flight. The recovered information, together with a selection of graphical and tabular presentations of the flight data was provided to MAIB representatives on 25 January 2013.
The MAIB investigation has now been finalised and in accordance with the provisions of ICAO Annex 13, a copy of the final investigation report was provided to the ATSB on 28 January 2014.