Ahmedabad : In a big breakthrough, the Civil Aviation Ministry on Thursday recovered, downloaded, and began analysing the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR)—crucial for piecing together the reasons behind the June 12 crash that killed 275 people after the black box of Air India 171 was brought from Ahmedabad to Delhi on June 24, the government said on Thursday.
The memory module was successfully accessed, and its data was downloaded at the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) laboratory under the Union Civil Aviation Ministry’s crash investigation division. Additionally, the Crash Protection Module (CPM) from the front black box was safely retrieved, and on June 25, the memory module was successfully accessed, and its data subsequently downloaded.
This came after reports claimed that India was likely to send the black box to the United States for data recovery as the recorder sustained heavy external damage due to the fire following the deadly crash. Such was the intensity that the temperature in and around the crash site reached about 1,000 degrees Celsius.
The CVR, which captures audio from the cockpit, including pilot conversations, and FDR collectively form what is known as the black box. Decoding the black box is significant as it would provide an in-depth insight into what led to the crash and the moments before the tragedy itself.
While the exact reason behind the crash will only be known after decoding the black box, an aviation expert has suggested dual engine failure as a possible cause. Former US Navy pilot Captain Steve Scheibner, in an interview with India Today, suggested that the deployment of the ram air turbine (RAT) shortly after takeoff pointed to a dual engine failure.
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