New Delhi (PTI): Aircraft accidents probe agency AAIB on Tuesday said special support has been sought for retrieval of data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 45 plane that crashed near Baramati last month.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others were killed in the fatal crash of the VSR Ventures-owned plane on January 28.

In a statement, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said the aircraft was equipped with two independent flight recorders.

Both recorders were exposed to intense heat for a prolonged period during the accident and sustained fire damage, it said.

According to AAIB, the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR), manufactured by L3-Communications, has been successfully downloaded at its Flight Recorder Laboratory.

"The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), manufactured by Honeywell, is undergoing detailed technical examination. Assistance has been sought from the Accredited Representative of the State of Manufacture for specialised support in data retrieval," the probe agency said.

In this case, the state of manufacture is the US.

Requesting all stakeholders to avoid speculation, AAIB said it was diligently following all prescribed technical and procedural protocols to ensure a comprehensive, objective and evidence-based investigation.

It also said the investigation was being done strictly in accordance with the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017 and the international standards and recommended practices of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) Annex 13.

Last week, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said the preliminary report on the crash of the Learjet 45 aircraft VT-SSK would be released soon.

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Bengaluru (PTI): The LPG supply scarcity in Karnataka has led to apprehension about the continuity of the Indira Canteens in the city, sources in the municipal body said on Thursday.

Indira Canteens are the Congress government’s flagship initiatives which were started by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah during his previous stint from 2013 to 2018.

There are about 180 Indira canteens in the city, which were built to feed the urban poor at a highly subsidised price. They offer breakfast at Rs five and meals for Rs 10.

The canteens have been functioning perfectly well till now, but the Iran-Israel-US conflict has cast its shadow on these government run canteens.

According to GBA sources, the vendors of the Indira Canteen told the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) officials that their services may be affected if the LPG crisis continues in the state.

"These vendors had come to us and communicated their hardship. Accordingly, we wrote to the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department asking them to restore the supply of LPG. Today also we raised the issue with the government," a GBA official told PTI.

He said the functioning of the Indira Canteens should not be affected because there are many urban poor who are entirely dependent on them.