Air India Crash Probe: Boeing 787 Black Box In Damaged State, May Have To Be Sent Abroad

The 'black box' of Air India's Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane that crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12 has sustained damage and will have to be sent to the United State to continue the data extraction process, sourced told NDTV.

The people in the know further informed NDTV that the final decision will be made by the government.

The 'black box' recovered from the crashed Air India flight could be sent to the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington DC for inspection, NDTV reported. In such a case a contingent of Indian officials will accompany the black box to ensure all protocols have been followed.

The 'black box' is in fact two devices in itself—the Cockpit Voice Recorder, or CVR, and the Flight Data Recorder, or FDR. It contains crucial information such as flight speed, altitude, engine performance, and cockpit audio, including communications between the pilots and air traffic control.

The device, which records vital data in an aircraft, was found on the roof of the doctors' hostel that was hit by the plane. It was found by Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, assisted by 40 personnel from the Gujarat government, as per NDTV.

The black box is expected to play a vital role in unravelling the cause that led to one of the deadliest plane crashes in India.

Air India flight AI-171, operating from Ahmedabad to London's Gatwick, crashed on afternoon of June 12, shortly after takeoff. The 12-year-old Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members.

The airline confirmed 241 fatalities of the 242 people on board, in a statement.

Among the passengers were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national, and seven Portuguese nationals. The flight was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kundar, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.