Jayant Patil questions black box damage in Ajit Pawar plane crash

Kolhapur: Senior NCP (SP) politician Jayant Patil said it is "impossible" for an aircraft's black box to be burnt, and claimed it was unbelievable that in the case of Ajit Pawar's plane crash, while a watch and mobile phones could be recovered from the site, the black box was reported to be damaged.Speaking at Sangli, Patil said, "A watch and mobiles were recovered from the crash site. Therefore, no one believes that the black box might have suffered any damage. In the Air India plane crash at Ahmedabad airport, the black box was retrieved. We need to ensure the investigation is done in a transparent way. Officers should not delay it. The findings will be scrutinised by the opposition and, hopefully, by govt as well."Patil also supported the research by MLA Rohit Pawar, who, through two presentations, cast doubts over the accident and attempted to show the Jan 28 incident as a conspiracy. Patil said, "Rohit Pawar studied a lot on the subject. He is talking after doing his research; I have no doubt about it. The investigators should attempt to clear the doubts Rohit Pawar is raising."Patil said NCP (SP) politicians, including him, presented the fact that Ajit Pawar was in negotiations with them and was seriously proceeding with the merger plan. "We presented the facts; now the NCP functionaries have to think about it. The person with whom we were talking is no more with us," said Patil.