Ahmedabad Air India Crash: AAIB Submits Preliminary Report, Highlighting Black Box Data Retrieval Efforts

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has submitted its preliminary report to the Ministry of Civil Aviation regarding the AI-171 crash in Ahmedabad. This report is based on the initial investigation into the Air India plane crash, which resulted in over 250 fatalities. The Crash Protection Module (CPM) from the front black box was successfully recovered, and the memory module data was accessed and downloaded at the AAIB Lab on June 25, 2025. A ‘golden chassis’ was utilized to verify the accuracy of data retrieval from the black boxes. One black box was found on a building rooftop on June 13, and the other was found in the wreckage on June 16. The investigation is being conducted by AAIB officials, with support from technical experts from the Indian Air Force, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States. The NTSB is the official investigative body for the aircraft’s design and manufacturing. The Director General of AAIB is leading the probe, with the inclusion of an aviation medicine expert and an Air Traffic Control officer. The NTSB team is working in Delhi alongside Indian authorities at the AAIB Lab. Experts from Boeing and GE are also present in Delhi, offering technical assistance. Previously, black boxes were sent to international decoding centers, but the AAIB Lab in Delhi can now decode both Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) and Flight Data Recorders (FDR) within India.