Black Box Data Being Decoded, Minister Says in First Briefing Since Air India Crash
Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu on Saturday said the black box recovered from the wreckage of the crashed Air India flight AI171 in Ahmedabad is being decoded, a critical step that is expected to provide crucial insights into the cause of the disaster that claimed 270 lives.
In his first official briefing since the tragedy on Thursday, Naidu assured that multiple agencies are conducting an extensive probe and that immediate precautionary measures, including enhanced surveillance of all Boeing 787 aircraft in the country, have been initiated.
“The Ministry is taking the utmost seriousness to the incident. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) was immediately mobilised,” the minister said. “One important update from the technical investigation team… is the recovery of the black box from the accident site at around 5 pm yesterday.”
He expressed hope that the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder would reveal the final moments before the crash. “The AAIB team believes that this decoding of the black box is going to give an in-depth insight into what would have actually happened,” Naidu added. “We are also eagerly waiting for what the results or the report is going to be once the AAIB goes through its full investigation.”
Emphasising the government’s focus on aviation safety, the minister announced that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered a safety audit of all similar aircraft. “We have very strict safety standards in the country. We also felt that there is a need to do an extended surveillance into the Boeing 787 Series… There are 34 in our Indian aircraft fleet today. I believe that 8 have already been inspected and with immediate urgency, all of them are going to be done,” he said.
Civil Aviation Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha, who also addressed the media, provided a key detail about the ill-fated aircraft, stating that it had a clean operational record just before the fatal flight. “As far as the entire history of the plane is concerned, before this accident, the plane had completed the Paris-Delhi-Ahmedabad sector without any accident,” Sinha said.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, operating as flight AI171 to London Gatwick, crashed into a medical college hostel complex in Meghaninagar moments after taking off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Thursday afternoon. The crash resulted in the deaths of all but one of the 242 people on board, along with several casualties on the ground, bringing the total death toll to 270 in one of India’s worst aviation disasters
