The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has submitted its preliminary report on the Air India Flight AI-171 crash in Ahmedabad to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and other relevant authorities, top sources confirmed on Tuesday. The initial report is based on findings from the early stages of the investigation into the June 12 disaster that claimed over 260 lives.
According to the Civil Aviation Ministry, the Crash Protection Module (CPM) from the cockpit recorder was safely recovered and, on June 25, the memory module was successfully accessed and its data downloaded at the AAIB Lab in Delhi. This marks a key milestone, as it is among the first instances where India has independently retrieved and decoded black box data without relying on foreign labs.
Sources said that a "golden chassis", or identical black box unit, was used to verify the integrity of the retrieved data. One of the recorders was recovered from a rooftop near the crash site on June 13, and the second was found in the debris on June 16.
International collaboration in investigation
The investigation is being led by the Director General of AAIB, and includes experts from:
- Indian Air Force (IAF)
- Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)
- National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), USA – representing the country of the aircraft’s manufacture
- Boeing and GE Aerospace – supporting the technical examination
An aviation medicine expert and an Air Traffic Control (ATC) officer are also part of the probe. The NTSB team is currently stationed in Delhi and working in close coordination with Indian officials at the AAIB facility.
India now equipped to handle complex black box data
Until recently, India lacked the necessary infrastructure to decode Flight Data Recorders (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) from serious aviation accidents. As a result, data from previous crashes was often sent abroad — to countries such as the US, UK, France, Canada, and Russia — for decoding and analysis. For example:
- In the 1996 Charkhi Dadri crash, data was processed in Moscow and the UK.
- In the 2010 Mangalore crash, black boxes were decoded in the US.
- In the 2015 Delhi crash, the Canadian Transportation Safety Board assisted.
- In the 2020 Kozhikode crash, although the recorders were downloaded at DGCA’s facility, data analysis was done with NTSB help.
Now, with the AAIB lab in Delhi fully operational, India can independently decode and analyse black boxes, significantly speeding up the investigation process and improving domestic aviation safety capabilities.
Further details from the preliminary report are awaited. The final report, with full findings and recommendations, is expected in the coming months.
(With ANI inputs)
