India to send crashed plane’s black box to US

[NEW DELHI] India will send the black box recovered from the recent fatally crashed Air India plane to the US for analysis, business newspaper The Economic Times reported on Thursday (Jun 19), citing people aware of the development.

Indian authorities are investigating the crash of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner which last week killed 241 people on board and at least 30 on the ground, marking the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.

“The recorder sustained heavy external damage from post-crash fire making it impossible to extract data in India,” the ET said, citing people aware of the development.

However, the Director General of India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, GVG Yugandhar, said in an emailed response to Reuters that the report was “factually incorrect”, without giving further details.

Air India declined comment.

The disaster has cast a shadow on Air India’s ambitions to become a “world class airline” and put top bosses at Boeing back in crisis mode.

BT in your inbox

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Earlier this week, India’s aviation safety watchdog said surveillance conducted on Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet did not reveal any major safety concerns.

The black box consists of two components – the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. It provides crucial insights for crash investigators, including altitude and airspeed data and pilot conversation records that help determine probable causes of crashes.

Data from the flight data recorder will be extracted at the Washington-based laboratory of the National Transportation Safety Board and shared with AAIB, the ET report added, citing sources. The NTSB did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

United Kingdom’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch will also be present at the laboratory, the report added. The government agency did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment. REUTERS