India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is yet to decide whether flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the Air India flight that crashed last Thursday will be sent overseas for decoding and analysis.
At least 270 people, most of them 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 outlets reported that the black boxes are being sent abroad, but the ministry of civil aviation clarified that no final decision has been made.
The ministry said the AAIB will determine the location for analysis after a “due assessment of technical, safety, and security factors”.
Investigators have recovered both sets of Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFRs) – the “black boxes” – from the Boeing 787 crash site.
These combined units, which record flight data and cockpit audio, were found on 13 and 16 June. The aircraft model carries two such sets to aid in thorough analysis.
Data recorders track with high precision the position of gear and flap levers, thrust settings, engine performance, fuel flow and even fire handle activation.
The data in the plane’s “black boxes” can be used to reconstruct the flight’s final moments and determine the cause of the incident.
However, some media outlets reported that the recorders had been badly damaged in the fire that engulfed the plane after the crash, making it difficult to extract the data in India and that the government was planning to send the recorders to the US.
Captain Kishore Chinta, a former accident investigator with the AAIB, told the BBC one set of recorders could be also sent to the US “to compare the data downloaded in India with that provided to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)”.
He said although the new AAIB lab in Delhi was inaugurated in April, “it’s unclear whether it is fully operational for EAFR data downloads”.
Meanwhile, Air India’s chairman has said that one of the engines of the Air India plane that crashed last week was new, while the other was not due for servicing until December.
In an interview with Times Now news channel, N Chandrasekaran said that both engines of the aircraft had “clean” histories.
Separately, the airline said that inspections have been completed on 26 of its 33 Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 aircraft, all of which have been “cleared for service”.
India’s aviation regulator had ordered additional safety checks on Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet after the deadly crash as a “preventive measure”.
On Thursday, the airline announced that its flights will be reduced on 16 international routes and suspended on three overseas destinations between 21 June and 15 July.
“The reductions arise from the decision to voluntarily undertake enhanced pre-flight safety checks, as well as accommodate additional flight durations arising from airspace closures in the Middle East,” the airline said in a statement.
The announcement came a day after the carrier said it would temporarily reduce flights operated with wide-body planes by 15%.