Location for decoding crashed Air India plane's black box to be decided: Government

The decision regarding the location for decoding the black box recovered from the doomed Air India plane in Ahmedabad last week will be decided after due assessment of all technical, safety and security considerations, the government said on Thursday.

The government's response came after reports suggested that India would send the black box to the US for data recovery as the recorder was heavily damaged in the crash, which killed 270 people. However, the government said the location would be decided by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).

On June 12, the London-bound Air India Flight AI171 crashed into a government-run medical hostel in Ahmedabad minutes after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. Only one survivor out of the 242 people aboard the ill-fated flight survived. The government said the AAIB recovered the black box from the crashed plane 28 hours after the tragedy.

The AAIB, which is probing the crash, said its probe is progressing steadily with all necessary support from local authorities and agencies. Key recovery work, including site documentation and evidence collection, has



been completed, and further analysis is now underway.

Following the crash, all planes under the Boeing 787-8/9 fleet of Air India are undergoing an enhanced safety inspection that began on June 15, the Civil Aviation Ministry said.

The doomed plane - a Boeing 787 Dreamliner - featured two black box sets and authorities were probing the combined unit of the digital flight data recorder (DFDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) recovered from the crash site.

The CVR, which captures audio from the cockpit, including pilot conversations, and FDR collectively form what is known as the black box. Decoding the black box is significant as it would provide an in-depth insight into what led to the crash and the moments before the tragedy itself.

Earlier, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu convened a detailed video conference with all airport directors across the country to review ground-level preparedness and passenger support mechanisms in light of the rescheduling of flights happening for multiple reasons, like post-accident checks, weather changes and closing of certain airspaces due to geopolitical tensions.