Black Box of the Air India plane damaged: reports

The Black Box of the ill-fated Air India 171 flight, which crashed in Ahmedabad, may have to be sent abroad for data extraction.

On June 12, Air India 171 flight bound for London crashed in Ahmedabad, killing 241 passengers with only one survivor who miraculously escaped death. To know exactly what happened on the ill-fated flight, the Black Box of Air India’s 787-8 Dreamliner plane was recovered. However, it has sustained damage and hence will be sent abroad to extract data.

Black Box of the Air India 171 flight to be sent abroad.

The Black Box of the ill-fated flight has sustained damage and may have to be sent to the United States for extraction of the data, said sources, adding that the government will take the final call. The Black Box is two devices in itself – the Cockpit Voice Recorder or CVR and the Flight Data Recorder of FDR. The Black Box recovered from the crashed Air India flight could be sent to the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, DC, for inspection. According to the sources, if the Black Box is sent to the US, a contingent of Indian officials will accompany it to ensure that the protocols have been followed.

More on CVR and FDR.

The Black Box of the flight was recovered 28 hours after the crash. They are bright orange in colour to help locate them from debris and wreckage. CVR captures up to 25 hours of cockpit conversations, radio calls with air traffic control, noise, and audible alerts in newer aircraft models. However, AI-171 was operating a Boeing 787 delivered in 2014, before the 2021 mandate for 25-hour CVR storage. Therefore, its recorder likely only had a two-hour recording capacity. FDR, on the other hand, collects parameters like airspeed, altitude, heading, control surface movements, and vertical acceleration, among others. In modern jets like 787-8, FDRs can simultaneously record thousands of parameters and loop for over 25 hours.