India Secures Vital Data from Crashed Air India Flight Recorders
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- India Secures Vital Data from Crashed Air India Flight Recorders
India Secures Vital Data from Crashed Air India Flight Recorders
New Delhi, India – The civil aviation ministry has verified that investigators have accessed critical flight recorder information from the Air India crash earlier this month, a vital development in the ongoing inquiry. The tragedy, which claimed at least 270 lives, occurred when a London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plummeted less than a minute after departing Ahmedabad airport on June 12.
Both Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFRs)—commonly known as black boxes—were retrieved from the wreckage on June 13 and 16, with one found on a rooftop and the other amid the rubble. Full analysis of the recovered data may take several weeks before details are disclosed by authorities.
These dual recorders, standard on this aircraft model, capture detailed flight metrics including gear positions, engine output, fuel usage, and emergency activations, alongside cockpit audio. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) logs pilot communications, individual voices, and background noises, aiding in piecing together the flight’s final moments to pinpoint the crash’s cause.
On Wednesday, a joint team from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) successfully extracted the data. The ministry stated, “The ongoing review of CVR and FDR data seeks to trace the accident’s sequence and identify factors to improve aviation safety moving forward.”
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy, speaking to Reuters at an aviation conference, expressed optimism that India would soon release findings, emphasizing the importance of transparency for public safety. She praised the strong collaboration between the NTSB and Indian authorities.
The two-week delay in data retrieval has sparked curiosity among aviation specialists, who find the timeline atypical. Air India Flight 171, under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kundar, lifted off at 13:39 local time but crashed into a busy Ahmedabad area after a brief 40-second flight, killing all but one of the 242 passengers in a baffling recent aviation incident.
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