The civil aviation ministry on Thursday said a multi-disciplinary team headed by the chief of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is probing the Ahmedabad Air India AI 171 plane crash and data are being extracted from the black boxes of the Boeing Dreamliner aircraft.
The government announcement came after the Congress flagged what the main opposition party called a delay in the probe into the crash that killed 275 people.
"Following the unfortunate accident involving Air India Flight AI-171, the AAIB promptly initiated an investigation and constituted a multidisciplinary team on 13 June 2025, in line with prescribed norms,” the civil aviation ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
"The team, constituted as per international protocol, is led by DG AAIB, and includes an aviation medicine specialist, an ATC officer, and representatives from National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) which is government investigative agency from the state of manufacture and design, (USA), as required for such investigations."
Earlier on Thursday, the Congress attacked the government claiming that the lead investigator had not being appointed for the probe into the Ahmedabad plane crash.
The party dubbed the “delay” as "inexplicable and inexcusable".
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared on X a media report which claimed that almost a fortnight after the Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) was yet to appoint a lead investigator to probe the accident.
The ministry said on June 24 evening, the team led by AAIB director-general GVG Yugandhar with technical members from the AAIB and the NTSB began the data extraction process.
"The Crash Protection Module (CPM) from the front black box was safely retrieved, and on 25 June, 2025, the memory module was successfully accessed and its data downloaded at the AAIB Lab,” the ministry said.
"The analysis of CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder) and FDR (Flight Data Recorder) data is underway. 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," the statement added.
Boeing 787 aircraft have two combined black box sets, each with the joint functions of CVR and DFDR. According to industry insiders, the combined black box is called an Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorder (EAFR), and regulations require two units to be located in the aircraft — one at the front and one at the aft, or rear section — for redundancy, in case one unit is significantly damaged or never recovered.
The first EAFR was recovered on June 13 from the crash site in Ahmedabad while the second was recovered on June 16. The government has so far not commented on the extent of damage to the black boxes.
(with inputs from agencies)
