The flight crew of the ill-fated Caribbean Airlines aircraft that crash-landed after overshooting the runway at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Guyana on Saturday was yesterday interviewed by the investigating team.

But according to a member of the investigating team, the comprehensive investigation into the crash, which caused the aircraft to snap upon impact, could take up to a year.

Caribbean Airlines pilot Fareed Dean and First Officer Jason Naipaul were among the first to be interviewed yesterday by the international multidisciplinary team investigating Saturday's crash.

The other crew members aboard flight BW 523 were also interviewed yesterday.

Although the crew is scheduled to return to Trinidad today, Guyana's Minister of Works Rubeson Benn says the investigations can take up to a year.

"It may take a year or more," he said.

"There would be an initial report, an interim report as we go along, and after they would have done their reports, have them reviewed, testing and simulations, putting together of various reports, balancing, determining causative factors, then, a year or more, I would say."

Benn, the lead minister in the investigations, said the process would be very comprehensive.

"They will look at angle of disparity to come up with what may have caused this incident," he said.

"They may not necessarily be one singular factor, they may be a combination of things, but they will have to determine that."

On Sunday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who travelled to Guyana with Transport Minister Devant Maharaj, Foreign Affairs and Communications Minister Surujrattan Rambachan, indicated she had advised that nothing from the aircraft should be removed or tampered with, including the tail.

Minister Benn said the only things which have been removed are the personal effects of the passengers, almost all the fuel and the black box.

"These records, in terms of the flight data recorders, the logs and so on, will feed into the information which will be critical as to what has happened, what occurred," he added.

The investigative team also includes a team from Trinidad and Tobago, headed by director general of the Civil Aviation Authority Ramesh Lutchmedial; eight US aviation experts from the National Transport Safety Board; other aviation experts from Suriname and Barbados; as well as officials from Caribbean Airlines and the aricraft's manufacturer, Boeing.