Preliminary Report Submitted in Air India Crash That Killed 260: Report

Air India Plane Crash: Investigators have yet to reveal their findings in the crash that claimed 260 lives.;

By :  Palakshi
Update: 2025-07-08 10:00 GMT
Preliminary Report Submitted in Air India Crash That Killed 260: Report
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The tragic Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad has sent its preliminary report to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, according to sources quoted by news agency ANI. The investigation into what caused the tragedy that claimed 260 lives is still ongoing, even though the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau's (AAIB) precise conclusions have not been made public.

The London-bound Air India flight crashed shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on June 12. It went down in the Meghaninagar area, slamming into a hostel complex. All 241 people on board were killed, along with several on the ground. Remarkably, one passenger survived the crash.

Officials confirmed that the Crash Protection Module (CPM) from the aircraft’s front black box was safely recovered. On June 25, investigators successfully accessed the memory module and downloaded the flight data at the AAIB Lab in Delhi. To confirm the recovery, experts used a duplicate black box—known as a "golden chassis"—to verify the integrity of the data.

The two black boxes were recovered on separate days following the crash. One was found on a rooftop at the crash site on June 13, while the second was retrieved from the wreckage on June 16.

The investigation is being led by AAIB officials, with support from a team of experts that includes representatives from the Indian Air Force, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)—since the aircraft was designed and manufactured in the United States.

Oversight of the probe is being handled by the Director General of the AAIB. The team also includes a specialist in aviation medicine and an Air Traffic Control (ATC) officer. Sources say the NTSB team is currently stationed in Delhi, working closely with Indian officials. Representatives from Boeing and GE are also in the capital to assist in the technical evaluation.

Until recently, India lacked the capability to decode black box data from major aviation accidents domestically. In past crashes, the recorders were sent abroad for analysis—to countries like the U.S., U.K., France, Canada, Russia, and Italy.

But that has now changed. With the establishment of a state-of-the-art AAIB Lab in Delhi, India can decode both Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) and Flight Data Recorders (FDR) on its own soil.

In earlier incidents:

* The 1996 Charkhi Dadri crash data was decoded in Moscow and the U.K.

* The 2010 Mangalore crash recorders were sent to the U.S.

* The 2015 Delhi crash black boxes were analyzed in Canada.

* For the 2020 Kozhikode crash, the CVR and FDR were downloaded in India, but with technical assistance from the NTSB.

This time, with the full decoding done in India, it marks a significant step forward in the country’s aviation safety infrastructure.

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