Black Box, Black Screen: Experts Say India's Failure To Decode Exposes Critical Gaps In Aviation Safety

India faces a critical setback as authorities fail to extract and analyse data from the severely damaged black box of the recent Air India Boeing 787 crash.

Experts sound alarm over the world's third-largest aviation market's reliance on a foreign lab for retrieving and decoding flight recorders, warning that the recent crash exposes flaws in crisis management and systemic issues including shortage of skilled manpower to manage high-stake data.

Despite being a global technology leader, they say, India's failure to manage and analyse complex aviation crash data could jeopardise long-term aviation safety amid rapid air traffic growth, highlighting the dire need for ample investments and improved infrastructure.

"India is the IT pioneer of the world... Led by companies like Tata Consulting Services, Wipro, Infosys, along with other specialised technology firms, the sector possesses deep expertise in data analysis," said Mark Martin, CEO, aviation advisory and risk firm, Martin Consulting. "While India has made impressive strides in software development, this incident suggests that there remains a critical gap in handling complex, real-time data from high-stakes sectors. This deficiency risks incomplete investigations and further compromises aviation safety in the long run."

In April, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu inaugurated a new lab for analysing aircraft flight data and cockpit recordings at the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau headquarters in New Delhi. Built with a Rs 9 crore investment and technical support from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, the goal was to enable India to independently analyse black boxes meeting global standards, reducing dependency on foreign agencies.

The minister, however, said that AAIB needs to decide on the decoding location, which will be chosen based on technical, safety, and security factors.

A Boeing 787 aircraft is equipped with two enhanced airborne flight recorders that track parameters such as gear and flap positions, engine performance, thrust settings, fuel flow, and even fire handle activation.

But the severity of the June 12 crash has complicated data recovery. The process involves extracting memory chips and translating it into understandable formats. Investigators rely on this information, as one of many tools, to determine the cause of the accident.

Tech woes apart, the AI171 plane crash — the deadliest aviation accident in decades — exposes lack of government foresight and severe shortage of qualified manpower within key regulatory bodies, according to experts.

"While India can develop technology, there is no government foresight, and we do not envision such damage... We are mostly in a reactionary mode and not long-term planning mode," according to Amit Singh, founder of Safety Matters Foundation. Moreover, there is a need to ramp up investments so as to decode chip-level damaged black box, he added.

Government funding lends credence to these issues. The Ministry of Civil Aviation’s allocation for 2025-26 has been slashed to Rs 2,400 crore from Rs 3,113 crore in 2023-24—a 23% reduction. Its capital outlay has plummeted 91% over the last two years, from Rs 755 crore to just Rs 70 crore. The allocations favour the Directorate General of Civil Aviation with the highest share of Rs 30 crore, while AAIB receives Rs 20 crore.

A parliamentary panel flagged these discrepancies in March. While regulatory compliance is vital, the rapid growth of airports—from 74 in 2014 to 159 now and a target of 220 by 2025— as well as air traffic over the years necessitates proportional increases in accident investigation resources, it said in a report. The committee considers current allocations "modest" given the critical nature of accident investigations.

Adding to concerns, the DGCA faces an acute manpower shortage, with over 53% of posts vacant—879 out of 1,633 positions—undermining its ability to enforce safety standards effectively.

Captain Mohan Ranganathan, former instructor pilot of Boeing 737 and an aviation safety expert warned, "India possesses the expertise, but they're not employed in DGCA. In the recent past, the DFDRs of new generation aircraft crashes were all sent abroad for decoding since we did not have trained professionals."

Experts describe the severity of the AI171 crash — marked by intense fire and impact damage — as "unprecedented", which is likely to have hindered ability to recover data locally. "While the Indian lab may have some great technology and capability, the damage to black boxes is beyond the scope of normal data retrieval, necessitating international assistance like from the US-based National Transportation Safety Board," according to aviation expert and CEO of Avialaz Consultants, Sanjay Lazar.

Critics aren't convinced with this argument though. The inability to decode and analyse the recorders underscores the limitations of the new lab to handle critical cases. "The lab failed its first big test," a former AAIB official said, raising questions about its readiness to deal with complex scenarios.

Singh further said that the black box is designed to be crash-proof and is installed in the most crash survivable part of the aircraft, usually the tail section. "If it gets damaged from an impact like AI 171, it is a question about the quality of the black box."

India is flying more, faster, and farther than ever before — but its ability to investigate severe crash remains stuck in neutral. And while officials promise a preliminary report of the investigation within 30 days, experts say deeper reforms can’t wait.