AAIB to take final call on whether to send AI-171's black box to US for analysis after Ahmedabad crash: Aviation Ministry

The Air India plane went down in Gujarat on June 12

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau will be taking the final call on whether or not to send the black box of the ill-fated AI-171 flight to the US, a statement by the Aviation Ministry said. This comes after it was earlier reported that the decision has been made and that the black box will be sent to the US.

"It has been reported in certain media outlets that the CVR/DFDR from the ill-fated AI171 flight is being 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," Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement.

The black box consists of two devices - the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder, both of which would help as crucial evidence in determining what actually happened on the day of the plane crash and how the flight ended in a tragedy.

NDTV reported that the black box of the plane might be sent to the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington DC for inspection. Sources told NDTV that if the black box is sent to the United States, a team of Indian officials will accompany it to ensure that all protocols are followed in the process of the probe.

The ill-fated Air India flight took off from the Ahmedabad Airport at 1:38 pm on June 12 with 242 people on board. This included 230 passengers and 12 crew members. However, merely seconds into the flight, the plane went down and hit the mess building of the BJ Medical College.

Both DGCA and the Aviation Ministry confirmed after the crash that the pilots of the plane had sent out a Mayday call to the ATC, following which, all contact was lost with the plane.

241 out of the 242 people onboard the plane were confirmed dead and only one person survived the crash. The bodies of the deceased in the crash were severely charred and unidentifiable and DNA samples were taken from family members to identify them.

Among the deceased was the former Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, whose last rites were held in Rajkot on Monday.