Air India flight crash: Despite the tall talk, India took US help to decode the black box

India took the help of American regulators to decode the damaged flight data recorders from the Air India AI 171 crash, going by the preliminary report of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) submitted this week.

Retrieving data from the black boxes of the destroyed Air India Flight AI-171 reportedly presented technical difficulties for the recently opened black box analysis lab of the AAIB in New Delhi.

The post-crash fire caused significant damage to the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, making recovery more difficult, the report says.

Officials briefly thought about sending the recorders overseas for analysis in the face of growing pressure, with some reports last month even saying they have been sent abroad.

However, the government stepped in to deny the news.

The black boxes are still in India, and the entire investigation will be conducted here, according to Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, who categorically denied those reports.

“India is where the black box is located.” The minister insisted, “Let the AAIB do the investigation.”

The Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Cooperation, Murlidhar Mohol, had added, confirming that no portion of the probe would be contracted out.

The government’s emphasis on technological independence and institutional capacity in managing high-stakes plane investigations is demonstrated by the decision to keep the investigation domestic, he said.

Yet, the preliminary report admits that India got highly specialised equipment from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States, including the “Golden Chassis” (an identical EAFR or Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorder unit) and sophisticated download cables, to guarantee the successful extraction of data from the damaged recorders. On June 23, the equipment reportedly reached India.

The aft EAFR was substantially damaged and could not be downloaded through conventional means. The CPM (crash protection module) was opened to inspect the memory card. The damage was extensive, according to the report.

The decoding practice was also made more complex by India’s decades of reliance on overseas decoding centres for critically damaged flight recorders. The new AAIB lab, which was opened in April, is India’s first such facility, fully outfitted to carry out domestic recovery.

India