India to Send AI 171’s Damaged Black Box To US For Data Recovery; UK Team To Join Probe

India is set to send the black box from the crashed Air India flight to the United States for further analysis. The Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) will be examined at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) facility in Washington.

The recorder suffered significant external damage, rendering data extraction in India unfeasible.

Photo Credit: PTI

Although the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) established a laboratory at its Delhi headquarters last year, it lacks the capability to retrieve data from recorders that have been so severely damaged.

A team from the NTSB will transport the recorder to their laboratory, accompanied and supervised by Indian officials to ensure that all procedures are correctly followed. Once the data is recovered, it will be shared with the AAIB.

The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch will also be involved in the process, as 53 British nationals were among the passengers who lost their lives.

Due to the extent of the damage, investigators will need to carefully extract the memory chip by removing the memory board to avoid further data loss. The surrounding electronic circuitry will also be inspected for damage.

Investigators are currently exploring several possible causes, including whether the wing flaps were properly extended and why the landing gear had been deployed.

They are also considering the possibility of electronic malfunction or fuel contamination that may have led to engine failure.

The Boeing 787 aircraft is built with multiple redundancies, meaning key systems and components are duplicated to enhance safety and reliability. It is capable of flying for up to 345 minutes on a single engine, even in the event of multiple system failures.

The pilot issued a single emergency Mayday call, which was his final radio communication. He did not respond to any further attempts by air traffic control, according to Samir Kumar Sinha, secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The AAIB has not yet constituted an official investigation panel to determine the cause of the crash, but it is required to submit a preliminary report within a month.