Ahmedabad plane crash: Black box data was recovered using NTSB kit that arrived 11 days post-crash

The black box data from Air India Boeing 787 aircraft that crashed in Ahmedabad last month was retrieved with the help of a kit from the U.S. government’s transport crash probe body that was flown into India 11 days after the crash.

There have been several questions raised as to why there was a delay in downloading the data from the black box. In a press statement, the Ministry of Civil Aviation earlier said that the two black boxes that this particular aircraft was equipped with were brought to Delhi on June 24, though one unit was recovered from the accident site on June 13 and another on June 16.

This was a day after the “Golden Chassis (Identical EAFR unit) and Download cables required to download data from EAFR were sourced from NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board], USA. The items arrived on 23rd June 2025,” the preliminary report of the Aviation Accident Investigation Bureau states.

Gujarat Police at the Air India Ahmedabad-London plane Dreamliner Boeing 787 crash site on July 11, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Vijay Soneji

The AAIB also has a “state-of-the-art facility” black box lab, which was inaugurated in April 2025 after an investment of ₹9 crore. The lab can retrieve data and conduct thorough analyses of accidents and incidents, but it is not clear whether it was equipped to recover the same after a crash like the one seen last month.

Two black boxes

The Air India Boeing 787 aircraft was equipped with two Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders, or black boxes, one in the tail section and another in the forward section of the aircraft. Each EAFR device stores both cockpit voice information as well as digital flight data.

While the black box in the rear section was discovered first on June 13 from the rooftop of the dining mess building of the hostel premises of BJ Medical College, it was found to be “substantially damaged”. The report states that the data could not be downloaded through conventional means. It adds that the Cockpit Area Microphone (CAM) that stores voice data was opened to inspect the memory card but “the damage was extensive”.

The download from the FWD EAFR was attempted at the AAIB Lab on June 24, 2025. The CPM was retrieved from the EAFR and found to be in good condition. The CPM was mounted on the Golden Chassis, and the raw data was downloaded from the EAFR. The downloaded flight data contained approximately 49 hours of flight data and 6 flights, including the event flight. The recovered audio was two hours in length and captured the event.

Workers amid the debris a day after the crash in Ahmedabad
| Photo Credit:
Vijay Soneji

The rear black box receives electrical power from the aircraft’s main electrical system, and stops recording data if this supply is disrupted. But the black box in the front section of the aircraft contains an additional power source from the Recorder Independent Power Supply (RIPS), a system that provides electrical power to the forward to the black box even if there is a power loss on the aircraft.

The EAFR in the front section was covered in soot, it was still intact. It was recovered from near one of the four columns of hostel buildings that is located farthest from the dining mess building.

The downloaded flight data contained approximately 49 hours of flight data and 6 flights, including the event flight. The recovered audio was two hours in length and captured the event.

“The initial analysis of the recorded audio and flight data has been done”.