Flight AI-171 Crash: Preliminary Report Submitted, Black Box Holds Crucial Clues

Air India Flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed on June 12. The original AAIB report into the crash has now been received.  The plane crashed into a building at BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad not long after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.  There were 242 people on board the plane, and 241 of them died. More people died on the ground, bringing the total number of deaths to between 260 and 275.

Important parts of the first report

As soon as they were seen, they were flight statistics, crew behaviour, the weather, and how well the machines worked.  The paper is said to be five pages long.

Both the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) were found.  The first one was on a roof near the crash site on June 13, and the second one was inside the on June 16.  It was possible to reach memory units on June 25; a "golden chassis" copy was used to be sure.

Following the rules: The investigation method follows the rules set by ICAO.  A simple report was turned in in thirty days, and now experts at the AAIB lab in Delhi are looking at the "black box" data.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will look into fee structures, flying safety, and the crash's wider effects. This will get a lot of attention in Parliament.

What does a "black box" mean, and why does it matter?

This is what flight recorders, which are sometimes just called "black boxes," are made of:

The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) keeps track of the last two hours or more of calls to air traffic control, crew talks, and sounds in the cockpit.

The flying Data Recorder (FDR) keeps track of between a few hundred and several thousand different aspects of flight, such as altitude, airspeed, control settings, and engine performance.  Most of the time, data is kept for up to 25 hours.

Even though they are called "black boxes," they are actually bright orange to help you find them.  Plus, they are built to last through the worst crash scenarios, like fire, impact, and submersion.  For the most part, they carry underwater signals that can be used for 30 days.  They are very helpful for working out what happened in an aeroplane crash because they are put near the tail, which is a structurally survivable zone.

Why it's important

The most important part of looking into plane crashes is the black box data.  They put it all together:

Timeline: System breakdowns, decisions made by the crew, and how the plane behaved in the seconds before it crashed.

Root reasons include issues with machines, mistakes people make, and the way things are in the environment.

What we learnt is that the government needs to improve the plane's gear, pilot training, emergency plans, and rules.

A summary said, "They are tools that help investigators piece together what happened before a crash... can make a computer-animated video reconstruction of the flight."

What's Next?

The AAIB will keep analysing very detailed black-box data.  There should be no doubt in our minds in the next few months about whether the issues were due to mechanical issues, pilot mistake, or outside factors.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation and Parliament's committees will look over the results and decide what changes need to be made to policies or rules.

The study may lead to changes in how the Boeing 787 is used, how Air India does things, and how safety is handled in flights in general.

Today is a very important day for Indian aviation safety because of this probe.  Black box analysis's honesty and clarity could stop more tragedies from happening, turning loss into a basis for safer skies.