Black box recovered from rooftop; NIA, other national agencies visit plane crash site

New Delhi: One of the two Black Boxes of Air India's ill-fated Dreamliner, which could provide crucial information about the final moments before the crash, has been recovered from the rooftop of the residential quarters of Ahmedabad's BJ Medical College, officials said on Friday.

Teams of National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other agencies also visited the site where the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner headed to London Gatwick crashed soon after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport, killing all but one of the 242 people on board Thursday afternoon.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has begun work with full force immediately and around 40 staff from the Gujarat government has joined efforts to augment the Ministry of Civil Aviation) teams on site, officials said.

"The DFDR (Digital Flight Data Recorder or Black Box) has been recovered from the rooftop," they said.

A Black Box is a machine that records information about the aircraft while on flight. The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), which records sounds in the cockpit and conversations between the pilots, and the DFDR, which records around 80 types of information like altitude, airspeed and flight heading among other things.

Usually, experts take around two weeks to decipher the data from the Black Box, which is made of steel or titanium and insulated from extreme heat and cold. Officials have not provided any information about CVR so far. Though called Black Box, it is orange or yellow in colour and rectangular in shape.

The AAIB investigation is in line with international protocols set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The AAIB, established in 2012, is an independent organisation for investigation of accidents and serious incidents. It is responsible for the classification of safety occurrences, involving aircraft operating in the Indian airspace into accidents and serious incidents.

As per the Rule 3 of Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017 the sole objective of the investigations carried out by AAIB is prevention of accidents and incidents and not to apportion blame or liability.

The government has also announced the setting up a high-level committee on strengthening aviation safety and preventing such accidents in future.

While Home Minister Amit Shah visited the injured in hospital on Thursday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site and met the injured at a hospital. Shah had said that the temperature in the plane was so high due to burning fuel that there was no chance to save anyone.

“There was 1.25 lakh litre of fuel inside the plane and it caught heat so it was impossible to save anyone,” Shah told reporters

"The process of collecting DNA samples from bodies of those killed in the plane crash is over. Forensic Science Laboratory and National Forensic Sciences University in Gujarat will conduct DNA tests of the victims,” he added.

Black Box

Two in number: Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR)

In some aircraft, CVR and DFDR are integrated, they are called Black Boxes but are painted with bright orange colour to ensure high visibility

Initially, metal foils used for recording data; later replaced with magnetic tapes; At present, solid-state chips are used International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) says audio recordings from cockpit voice recorders supplement flight data by providing related details on flight crew responses.

1950: First generation Flight Data Recorders (FDRs) with metal foil as the recording medium.

1953: General Mills sells the first FDR to Lockheed Aircraft Company, enclosed in a yellow-painted spherical shell.

1954: Australia's David Ronald de Mey Warren invented the world's first FDR while probing an air crash.

1960: FDRs and CVRs are made mandatory for aircraft.

1965: FDRs required to be painted bright orange or yellow to locate them easily at crash sites

1990: Solid-state memory devices replaced magnetic tapes in FDRs

April 2025

Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) sets up a flight recorders laboratory in Delhi to carry out more effective probes into air accidents