The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has kept open the option of getting the crashed Air India plane’s black box analysed abroad.
The ministry of civil aviation on Thursday said the AAIB will decide on where the decoding of the AI171 flight recorders will be done after an assessment of technical, safety and security considerations.
The ministry’s clarification came after some media outlets reported that the
black box of the aircraft would be sent abroad for retrieval and analysis.
“The decision regarding the location for decoding the flight recorders will be taken by the AAIB after due assessment of all technical, safety and security considerations,” the ministry said.
The AAIB, which is investigating the crash, is being assisted by a team from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the US. The AAIB has recovered key evidence and site documentation, and their analysis is underway.
The black box of the crashed Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner has two sets — the digital flight data recorder (DFDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR). These devices record and store data like aircraft parameters and voice conversations of the pilot, co-pilot, radio communications and cockpit ambient noise. The black box, however, is not black but a bright orange device with reflective strips for easier detection among wreckage.
Following the June 12 Ahmedabad-London Gatwick plane crash, the hunt for the black box began to find out what went wrong that led to the death of 241 people on board and many others on the ground.
The next day, the DFDR was found on the rooftop of the hostel into which the plane had crashed. On June 16, the CVR was also recovered from the site.
The black box is crucial in the probe as it records conversations in the aircraft till the last second of the crash.
Reacting to the speculation on sending the flight recorders abroad, the Airline Pilots’ Association (ALPA) of India managing committee said it believed that if the black box was decoded abroad, an accurate copy of the DFDR and CVR must be obtained in the presence of neutral third parties before being handed over to the original equipment manufacturer. “This will instil confidence in the sanctity of the investigation,” ALPA India said.
The device, which is crash-protected up to a certain level and resistant to fire and explosion, among other impacts, is being suspected to have suffered damage in the explosion.
According to Sanjay Lazar, aviation expert and CEO of Avialaz Consultants, if the black box is damaged beyond retrieval, it would have to be sent abroad for decoding, keeping in mind that the AAIB would have to ensure no compromise on data during the retrieval of the flight recorders. But other experts believed that the country has efficient professionals and advanced technology to decode the black box data.
“The professionals in our country are competent enough to decode the black box. It would not be a good decision to send the device to any foreign country, including America,” said Mark D. Martin, CEO of Martin Consulting, expressing the fear of jeopardising the ongoing probe. “I am totally against it,” Martin said.
Subhash Goyal, chairman of the Aviation and Tourism Expert Committee of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, said: “Normally, they shift the blame on pilots. They can say it is the pilots’ error. A lot of times, Boeing tries to cover up its faults. The black box should be analysed in India only. We have the technology to do it. We are efficient at decoding black boxes.”