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Investigators have begun analyzing data extracted from the black boxes of the ill-fated Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed on June 12, killing at least 270 people, India’s Civil Aviation Ministry said on Thursday.
The data is crucial as it will help shed light on the cause of the country’s worst aviation disaster in recent memory.
A team led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has started looking at the data with support from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the ministry said in a statement.
“These efforts aim to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the accident and identify contributing factors to enhance aviation safety and prevent future occurrences,” it said.
Indian investigators recovered the black boxes from the wreckage site in the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad, a couple of days after the London-bound Air India flight 171 struck a residential area minutes after takeoff.
The crash killed 241 people onboard and at least 29 on the ground. There was one survivor.
The black box is one of the most important pieces of forensic evidence following a plane crash. There are typically two sturdy devices: the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. They’re typically orange, not black.
Indian authorities flew the black boxes from Ahmedabad to the national capital in an Indian Air Force aircraft amid tight security early this week.
The investigation could take weeks or months.
India set up a state-of-the-art laboratory in New Delhi in April to help the AAIB repair damaged black boxes and retrieve data to enhance the accuracy of investigations.
A multidisciplinary team led by AAIB director general GVG Yugandhar is probing the Air India crash with assistance from aviation and air traffic control specialists and experts from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
The Indian government has also set up a separate, high-level committee to examine the causes leading to the crash and formulate procedures to prevent and handle aircraft emergencies in the future. The committee is expected to file a preliminary report within three months.
Following the crash, Indian authorities had ordered deeper checks of Air India’s entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners to prevent future incidents.
Air India has 33 Dreamliners in its fleet. Inspection has been completed for at least 26, while four were undergoing long-term maintenance. The rest were expected to finish the safety checks soon.
Following the crash of an Air India plane bound for London that killed at least 240 people on Thursday in Ahmedabad, aviation safety analyst Amit Singh is calling on India’s government to be transparent about the investigation and to allow experts to contribute.
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