Air India Black Box Headed to US

Time of India

5 hours ago

The Centre will send the black box of the crashed Air India Boeing 787 aircraft to the US for analysis. The recorder sustained heavy external damage from the conflagration after the crash, making it impossible for local investigators to extract data, people aware of the development told ET.
They said entries from the digital
flight data recorder
(DFDR) would be extracted in the Washington-based laboratory of the National Safety Transport Board. The data would be shared with India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). Under international rules, the state of occurrence is responsible for the crash investigation. 'While AAIB had established a laboratory at its headquarters in New Delhi, it is not yet properly equipped to extract data from recorders that have sustained heavy damage,' said an official aware of the process.
'The NTSB team will carry them to their lab under protection and supervision from Indian officials to ensure proper protocols are followed,' the official said.
The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch will also be present, as 53 British citizens were among those killed in the June 12 crash.
The Air India aircraft crashed seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad airport, killing 241 on board the aircraft and 33 on the ground.
The two units — FDR and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) — are together called the black box. Painted bright orange, they are designed to survive extreme conditions and are located near the tail, which faces least impact during a crash. Notably, heavy damage is not common when an aircraft catches fire due to a crash.
Black box data is crucial in probing the crash. FDR would give insights into multiple technical parameters, such as timing, altitude and airspeed. CVR holds crucial audio recordings from the cockpit, including pilot conversations and ambient noises, such as any warning message from the electronic systems.
The official cited earlier said the time taken to extract data from the recorder could range from two days to months, depending on the extent of the damage. 'Since the recorder has been damaged, the chip will need to be extracted by removing the memory board so there is no further damage to data. The electronic circuit will have to be assessed for damage,' he said.
Investigators are examining multiple possibilities — whether the flaps on the ill-fated aircraft's wings were properly extended, and why its landing gear was down. They are looking at failure of the electronic systems, or fuel contamination, both of which could potentially have caused the engines to shut down. Air crashes are caused by multiple failures and early hypotheses are often ruled out in course of lengthy and technical investigations. The 787, like any modern aircraft, has been built with multiple redundancies, meaning there are duplications of critical components or systems to enhance reliability and make the aircraft failsafe. For instance, the plane has demonstrated capability to fly for 345 minutes with a single engine, as well as numerous system failures.