The black box from the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12 has sustained damage and may need to be sent to the United States for further data extraction, media reports have claimed. The final decision will be made by the Indian government.
Technically comprising two separate devices – the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR)—the black box from Flight AI171 could be flown to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) headquarters in Washington, DC for analysis. Sources added that if the data is sent abroad, Indian officials will accompany the equipment to ensure compliance with all protocols.
The flight, bound for London’s Gatwick Airport, crashed moments after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. At 1:40 pm local time, the aircraft plunged into a medical college hostel complex in Ahmedabad’s Meghani Nagar area, triggering a massive fire. Of the 242 people on board, only one passenger survived.
