Air India crash: Black boxes intact, ‘good data’ extracted, investigators tell lawmakers

Indian investigators of the deadly Air India airliner crash that killed 260 last month told a meeting of lawmakers that the plane’s black boxes were not damaged, two people familiar with the discussions said.

The revelation about the devices critical to reconstructing the events leading up to an air crash, comes after Indian media said they were damaged when the London-bound Boeing Dreamliner crashed on June 12, to erupt in a massive fireball.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has also been able to extract ”good data” from the black boxes, its officials told lawmakers on Wednesday during a parliamentary panel meeting on aviation, added one of the sources.

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Both sources declined to be identified as the discussions are private. The AAIB and India’s aviation ministry did not respond to Reuters queries.

The plane’s cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR), as the black boxes are formally known, were recovered in the days after the crash, one from a rooftop at the site on June 13, and the other from debris on June 16.

The preliminary report from investigation into the crash is likely to be made public by Friday, Reuters has previously reported.

The crash investigation had narrowed its focus to the movement of the plane’s fuel control switches, and also focused, at least partly, on engine thrust issues, Reuters reported last month.

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Air India has faced intense scrutiny since the crash. Its chief executive, Campbell Wilson, appeared before the committee and the airline gave updates on its efforts after the crash, one of the sources said.

The EU Aviation Safety Agency has said it plans to investigate the company’s budget airline, Air India Express, after Reuters reported it did not follow a directive to change engine parts of an Airbus A320 in a timely manner and falsified records to show compliance.

India’s aviation watchdog has also warned Air India for breaching rules for flying three Airbus planes with overdue checks on escape slides.