The black box from the Air India Boeing 787 that crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12 has sustained “damage” and may need to be sent to the United States for further data extraction, Indian media reported on Thursday.

The final decision, however, on whether to send the device abroad rests with the Indian government, NDTV reported, quoting official sources.
If approved, the black box could be flown to the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) headquarters in Washington, DC.

The so-called “black box” is actually made up of two critical components: the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR).

Their contents will be critical in piecing together the events that led to the tragic Flight AI-171 incident, providing invaluable insights for accident prevention in the future.

Together, they store vital information including flight speed, altitude, engine performance, and cockpit audio — such as conversations between the pilots and air traffic controllers.

These recordings are essential for reconstructing the final moments of a flight and understanding the cause of aviation accidents.

t was recovered by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) with the assistance of 40 personnel from the Gujarat state government.

Given the extent of the crash — the worst in India in recent memory — the data within the black box is expected to be key in determining what went wrong.

The Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner was piloted by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kundar at the time of the crash.

On board were 169 Indian nationals, along with 53 British, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian citizen, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The potential involvement of the US NTSB in analyzing the damaged recorders highlights the complexity and seriousness of the investigation.

Officials hope that the retrieved data will offer crucial insights into what caused the tragedy, and help prevent similar accidents in the future.

Early April this year, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu inaugurated the cutting-edge Digital Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder (DFDR & CVR) Laboratory at the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) at Udaan Bhawan in the national capital.

The facility widely referred to as the “Black Box Lab” was established with an investment of Rs 9 crore with the support of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to establish advanced DFDR and CVR laboratories and equipping them to analyse retrieved flight data from aircraft.

However, the AAIB laboratory may require advanced technology upgrade, amidst reports that the black box of the crashed Air India flight is now being sent to US based National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for analysis.

The laboratory reportedly doesn’t have the capacity to extract data from recorders that have sustained such heavy damage.

The experts at AAIB laboratory tried to extract the data but require some advanced tools when recorders are heavily damaged, said official sources.

Initially, it was said that the state-of-the-art facility will enable AAIB to repair damaged black boxes, retrieve data, and conduct thorough analyses of accidents and incidents. With the ability to correlate data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder, Radar, and Flight Data Recorder, the lab was to enhance the accuracy of investigative findings. The establishment of this lab, built to international standards and comparable to those of developed nations, fulfilled India’s obligations as an ICAO member state.

With India’s aviation sector set to grow a faster pace, having an advanced laboratory is important for identification of root causes of incidents more effectively and ensuring accountability, which remains the cornerstone of aviation safety.

The NTSB team will carry the recorders to their lab under protection and supervision from Indian officials to ensure that proper protocols are followed. The data will then be shared with AAIB. UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch will also be present there as 53 British citizens were among the deceased passengers.

Since the recorder has been damaged, the chip will need to be extracted by removing the memory board to prevent further damage to data. The electronic circuit will also be assessed for damage.