Explained: Why India is sending Air India plane's black box to the US

Business Standard

6 hours ago

India is sending the black box of the Air India Flight AI-171 to the United States for advanced forensic analysis, as experts face serious challenges in recovering data from the severely damaged flight recorders.
The black box—comprising the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR)—was recovered from the wreckage after the Boeing 787 Dreamliner tragically crashed just minutes after takeoff from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The crash claimed 275 lives, including 242 passengers, 33 people on the ground, and left only one survivor.
Why the black box matters
The black box is one of the most critical components in modern aircraft crash investigations. It contains vital data and audio recordings that can help piece together the events that led to a disaster. In the case of AI-171, the crash occurred within moments of departure, with little time for external observers to assess what went wrong. The pilot managed to send a single Mayday call but failed to respond afterward, leaving a significant information gap that only the black box can fill.
According to international aviation protocols, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) of India is responsible for probing the incident since the crash occurred on Indian soil. However, while the AAIB has a lab in Delhi, the equipment there is currently not capable of recovering data from recorders that have sustained such extreme external damage—mainly from post-crash fire and impact, according to The Economic Times.
Why the US is being called in
To address this, India is turning to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the US, whose Washington-based lab is globally recognised for its ability to recover and analyse severely compromised black boxes. A team of Indian officials will accompany the recorders to the NTSB lab, ensuring the chain of custody and adherence to international safety and evidence-handling protocols.
'While AAIB had established a laboratory at its headquarters in Delhi last year, it is yet to be properly equipped to extract data from recorders which have sustained heavy damage. The NTSB team will carry them to their lab under protection and supervision from Indian officials to ensure that proper protocols are followed,' a source told The Economic Times.
The analysis at NTSB could take anywhere from a few days to several months, depending on the extent of internal damage to the data chips and circuitry. Experts will carefully dismantle the memory unit, assess the condition of the recording chip, and attempt to extract usable data without further compromising it. ALSO READ |
What's inside a black box?
Despite its name, the black box is neither black nor a single device. It consists of two separate but equally important recorders:
- Flight Data Recorder (FDR): Logs thousands of parameters from the aircraft's systems, such as speed, altitude, heading, engine performance, and control positions.
- Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR): Records audio from the cockpit, including pilot conversations, alarms, and ambient sounds that may indicate issues.
The outer casing of a black box is made of heat-resistant stainless steel or titanium and is painted bright orange or yellow for visibility during recovery. It is built to withstand extreme conditions: high-impact crashes, fire, saltwater submersion, and pressures equivalent to thousands of G-forces.
These boxes also feature an Underwater Locator Beacon (ULB), which activates upon contact with water and emits a signal to help search teams find them in ocean crashes.
What happened to AI-171?
The ill-fated Air India flight, bound for Gatwick Airport in the UK, took off around noon on June 12, 2025. Just seconds after takeoff, the aircraft crashed at a low altitude of only 625 feet, striking the rooftop of a medical college building. Emergency responders quickly recovered the black box from the debris, though the equipment showed signs of fire and impact-related damage.
Civil Aviation Ministry Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha confirmed that the last radio contact from the pilot was a distress Mayday call, after which there was radio silence. 'He didn't respond back to the air traffic control,' Sinha said.
Investigators are now examining several possibilities:
- Whether the aircraft's wing flaps were fully extended
- Why the landing gear was deployed
- Whether there was a fuel contamination issue
- If an electronic system failure caused engine shutdown
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is built with extensive redundancy in its systems, designed to continue flying safely even after multiple component failures. It can fly up to 345 minutes on a single engine. This makes the sudden crash of a new-generation aircraft especially perplexing to experts.