Ahmedabad Plane Crash: Black Box May Reveal the Truth Behind AI-171 Tragedy—Here's All You Need to Know

Air India Flight AI171, bound for London’s Gatwick Airport, crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Wednesday. While rescue teams continue to trace out survivors, the investigation is now contingent upon on one critical component: the aircraft’s black box.

What is a Black Box?

In a layman's term, a "black box" in an aircraft is a device that records critical data and audio from a flight. In other words, it provides provides a second-by-second reconstruction of what happened inside the cockpit and across the aircraft systems before the crash.

Also Read: Air India Ahmedabad-London Flight With 242 Passengers Onboard Crashes, First Visuals From Accident Site | Republic World

How will this help?

Once the black box is recovered, it will help in providing a detailed account of the final moments of the flight, including any technical malfunctions, pilot communication, or other external factors that could have resulted in the crash.

In many cases, the black box provides the only definitive account of what happened, especially when there are no survivors or when physical evidence is inconclusive.

How has block box helped in the past?

The black box data has played an instrumental role in solving major aviation disasters globally. One of them is the Germanwings crash in 2015 pertaining to the Malaysia Airlines incidents. In India, the 2020 Kozhikode crash investigation leveraged on recordings to establish pilot decisions and runway conditions during landing.

However, there were numerous incidents in the past wherein the Blackbox could not decipher the factors that led to the crash.

What we know about the crash so far?

The crashed aircraft, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, was carrying over 242 people, comprising passengers, 2 pilots and 10 cabin crew. The flight crashed in Gujarat's Meghani Nagar area near Ahmedabad airport. However, officials have not confirmed the recovery of black box so far.

The crash occurred at approximately 1:17 PM, with thick black smoke seen emanating from the Dharpur area near Meghaninagar.

Meanwhile, Air India has confirmed that flight AI-171, operating from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, was involved in a crash shortly after takeoff on Thursday afternoon. It confirmed that the pangers comprised 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian, and seven Portuguese citizens.