AAIB Releases Initial Findings on Ahmedabad Air India Crash; Focus on Black Box Data Retrieval

The AAIB has presented its preliminary findings concerning the AI-171 crash in Ahmedabad to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and other relevant bodies. The report details the initial phases of the investigation into the Air India plane crash, which claimed the lives of more than 250 people. The Crash Protection Module (CPM) from the front black box was successfully recovered, and the memory module’s data was accessed and downloaded on June 25, 2025, at the AAIB Lab. A ‘golden chassis,’ or an identical black box, played a crucial role in confirming the accuracy of the data recovery process. One black box was retrieved from a building’s rooftop on June 13, and another was recovered from the crash site debris on June 16. The investigation team includes AAIB officials, technical experts from the Indian Air Force, HAL, and the NTSB from the U.S. The NTSB, being the official investigative agency for the aircraft’s design and manufacture, is actively participating. The Director General of AAIB leads the investigation, with assistance from an aviation medicine expert and an Air Traffic Control officer. The NTSB team is in Delhi, working alongside Indian authorities at the AAIB Lab. Representatives from Boeing and GE are also present in Delhi to provide technical assistance. Before this, AAIB had to send black boxes to decoding centers overseas. However, the AAIB Lab in Delhi is now capable of decoding both CVRs and FDRs.