India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has not yet decided whether flight data and cockpit audio recorders for Air India flights that crashed last Thursday will be sent overseas for decoding and analysis.
At least 270 passengers were killed when the London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport in western India.
Some media reports that black boxes have been sent overseas, but the Ministry of Civil Aviation has made it clear that no final decision has been made.
The ministry said the AAIB will determine the location of the analysis after “a justified assessment of technology, safety and security factors.”
Investigators retrieved both sets of expanded Aerial Flying Recorders (EAFRs) from the Boeing 787 crash site.
These combination units, which record flight data and cockpit audio, were found on June 13th and 16th. The aircraft model comes with two sets of these to aid in-depth analysis.
The data recorder tracks gear and flap lever position, thrust settings, engine performance, fuel flow, and even fire handle activation with high accuracy.
You can use the “black box” data on the plane to reconstruct the final moments of the flight and determine the cause of the incident.
However, some media reported that recorders were severely damaged in a fire that involved the plane after the crash, making it difficult to extract data in India and that the government plans to send recorders to the US.
Captain Kishore Chinta, former AAIB accident investigator, said that in order to send a set of recorders to the BBC, “we will compare the data downloaded in India with the data provided to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)”.
He said that Delhi's new AAIB lab was launched in April, but “it's unclear whether it's working perfectly with downloading EAFR data.”
Meanwhile, Air India chairman said one of the engines of the Air India plane that crashed last week was new, with the other not planned to serve until December.
In an interview with the Times Now News Channel, N Chandrasekaran said both the aircraft's engines have a “clean” history.
Separately, the airline said inspections have been completed on 26 of the 33 Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 aircraft.
India's aviation regulator had ordered additional safety checks on Air India's Boeing 787 fleet after a fatal crash as a “precautionary measure.”
On Thursday, the airline announced that flights will be cut on 16 international routes and will be suspended at three overseas destinations between June 21 and July 15th.
“The reductions will correspond to additional flight periods that arise from the decision to voluntarily undertake highly enhanced pre-flight safety checks and arising from airspace closures in the Middle East,” the airline said in a statement.
The announcement comes a day after the carrier said it would cut flights operated by widebody planes by 15%.
