AAIB yet to decide where black box data will be decoded
The government body investigating the Air India Boeing 787-8 crash in Ahmedabad last week will take a decision on where the black box data will be decoded 'after due assessment of all technical, safety, and security considerations,' the Ministry of Civil Aviation said on Thursday (June 19, 2025).
The statement said two different sets of black boxes were recovered from the crash site, one on June 13 and another on June 16. Each black box unit comprises the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR).
'This model of aircraft has two black box sets,' the press statement said about the Boeing 787-8 aircraft involved in the crash. Veteran pilots explained that these are called Extended Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFR), of which one unit is in the nose and one in the tail section for redundancy (or fall back).
When last time the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) investigated an airline crash, involving the Air India Express accident in August 2020 in Calicut that killed 21 out of the total 190 onboard, the black box was sent to the lab of the American apex body for probing air crashes, National Transportation Safety Board.
According to a former AAIB official, the entire downloading of the data was under the watchful presence of the then Indian Ambassador to the U.S., Taranjit Singh Sandhu, who was in the facility for two days. At that time, India did not have its own dedicated lab for reading out DFDR and CVR data, and the black box was also damaged, the above quoted official said.
The AAIB in April inaugurated a new Digital Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder (DFDR & CVR) laboratory at its headquarters set up with an investment of ₹9 crore. But it is not clear whether the data will be decoded here.
A government official closely involved with the probe said there would be a preliminary report. Interestingly, during the only other airline crash investigated by the AAIB (which was formed in 2012), after the Mangalore crash of May 2010 — i.e. Calicut accident — only the final report was published within a year.
Officials, past and present, explained that the rules under which the AAIB carries out an investigation do not specify a timeline for a preliminary report, even though the UN aviation safety watchdog, the International Civil Aviation Organisation's Annex 13 requires one within 30 days. A similar rule is not part of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017 formed under the principal law, the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024.
The Rules define a preliminary report as a 'communication used for the prompt dissemination of data obtained during the early stages of the investigation.' But Clause 9 of the Rules dealing with preliminary investigation states that its scope is to 'assess the classification of the occurrence and the expertise needed for detailed investigation'. There are three kinds of air mishaps — incident, serious incident or accident.
One of the above mentioned officials said the Calicut probe team didn't release a preliminary report because the Rules don't lay down a timeline for it and require such a report to only categorise the nature of the mishap. He added that the team involved in the drafting of the Rules held the opinion that such a report could be vastly different from the final investigation report, which may result in public criticism and media backlash.
The AAIB has the responsibility to fulfil the obligations of the Indian government under ICAO's Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation signed at Chicago (Chicago Convention) on December 7, 1944 and amended from time to time. India is among the 193 countries that are signatories to the Convention.
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