Air India Crash: ‘Heavily Damaged’ Black Box May Be Sent to US for Data Recovery
The black box recovered from the wreckage of Air India Flight 171 is “severely damaged” by the intense post-crash fire and may be sent to the United States for data extraction, a critical step in understanding what caused last week’s tragic crash in Ahmedabad, according to senior government sources.
The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR), which together form the “black box,” were retrieved from the crash site. However, sources within the Ministry of Civil Aviation said the significant thermal and physical damage to the units might make it impossible to decode the vital flight data locally. A final decision on whether to send the recorders abroad will be taken in the next day or two.
According to reports, if Indian labs are unable to extract the data, the recorders will likely be sent to the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in Washington. The US has some of the world’s most advanced facilities capable of handling complex aviation forensics and reconstructing data from severely degraded devices. The NTSB and the aircraft’s manufacturer, Boeing, are already assisting India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) in the probe.
Recovering this data is considered the single most crucial element in the investigation. The CVR captures all sounds from the cockpit, including pilot conversations and alarms, while the FDR logs thousands of parameters about the aircraft’s performance, such as altitude, speed, and engine status. This information is expected to provide definitive answers about the aircraft’s final moments and whether the crash was caused by mechanical failure, human error, or other factors.
The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed minutes after taking off from Ahmedabad on Thursday, June 12, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and at least 33 people on the ground. The preliminary analysis of the heavily damaged recorders is underway in India, but officials concede that the process is challenging due to the extent of the damage.
