• Source:JND
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In a crucial development for the ongoing probe into the tragic Air India Boeing 787-8 crash that claimed 260 lives last month, India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has successfully retrieved 49 hours of flight data with the help of a ‘Golden Chassis’ sourced from the United States. The fateful Air India flight AI171 crashed soon after take-off from Ahmedabad on June 12, and all but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board were killed. It was the first fatal crash of a Boeing 787 anywhere in the world.

Golden Chassis of US Facilitates Data Recovery

Under the AAIB's preliminary investigation report issued on Saturday, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) supplied a special Golden Chassis and download cables to assist in retrieving important data from the mangled black boxes officially referred to as Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFRs). "The Crash Protection Module (CPM) was recovered from the forward EAFR and installed on the Golden Chassis to obtain raw flight data," the report continued, explaining that the data comprises about 49 hours over six flights, including the crash flight.

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Preliminary examination of the flight recorders and cockpit voices has shown an unexpected chain of events. Both fuel control switches supplying fuel to the engines were switched off shortly after the Dreamliner took off, causing instant loss of thrust. One of the pilots can be heard in the cockpit recording querying the other, "Why did you cut off the fuel?"to which the other pilot replied that he did not. In a matter of seconds, the co-pilot issued a panicky 'MAYDAY' call, but the plane crashed into the edge of a medical college hostel by the airport. The plane accelerated to a speed of 180 knots at 08:08:42 UTC before the fuel cutoff switches of both engines shifted from 'RUN' to 'CUTOFF' within one second of each other. The engines, General Electric's GEnx-1B types, were recovered and quarantined for further examination. The AAIB had confirmed that they complied with all airworthiness directives, and the samples of fuel were satisfactory. The agency has not made any safety directives to the other Boeing 787-8 operators at this time, but stated that more in-depth analysis is being done.

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The UK-based families who lost loved ones in the June 12 crash have called for a mechanism of expert representation in the investigatory process. Keystone Law, which is advising over 20 of these families, welcomed the more “defined area of investigation” around the fuel control switches but stressed that “antiquated laws” excluded those impacted from participating. “The families now understand there is a more defined area of investigation, but one of their bigger concerns is that they are excluded from this safety investigation,” said James Healy-Pratt, Aviation Partner at Keystone. “Ideally, there should be some mechanism for which there can be expert representation for those families that can feed into the combined safety work that's going on. And don't forget, it's an international product. It's not only the Indian AAIB; the British AAIB has been helping, as have the Americans. So ideally, the families should have some form of input into that,” he said. Meanwhile, Air India said it remains fully cooperative with the investigation, while Boeing reaffirmed its backing for the investigation, consistent with global practice.