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Air India plane crash report: How 'Golden Chassis' helped AAIB get raw data from black box
The tail of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane that crashed is seen stuck on a building after the incident in Ahmedabad, India, on June 12. In the aftermath of the crash, Air India continues to cancel several flights. Reuters
A highly specialised tool from the United States known as a Golden Chassis helped Indian investigators retrieve critical data from one of the black boxes of Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft that crashed last month, killing 261 people.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said Saturday (July 11) that the tool enabled the recovery of approximately 49 hours of flight data and two hours of cockpit audio, including information from the crash itself.
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The aircraft, bound for London, came down seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad on June 12. Investigators retrieved the two Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFRs) and transported them to New Delhi on June 24.
The forward black box, or EAFR, remained sufficiently intact for a download attempt at the AAIB lab. The aft recorder, however, was too badly damaged to yield data by conventional methods.
How the Golden Chassis works
A Golden Chassis is a specialised tool used to recover data from damaged flight recorders. It consists of an identical, undamaged unit of the same model as the affected recorder and is used to interface with its internal memory, known as the Crash Protection Module (CPM).
When a recorder is too damaged to power up or connect directly, investigators remove the intact CPM and mount it onto the Golden Chassis. This allows for safe extraction of flight and cockpit voice data.
In this case, the required chassis and cables were sourced from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Once the forward CPM was mounted onto the Golden Chassis, flight and audio data from six flights, including the doomed one, were successfully downloaded.
'The recovered audio was two hours in length and captured the event. Initial analysis of the recorded audio and flight data has been done,' the AAIB said in its preliminary report.
Ongoing investigation
The aft EAFR was found to be too extensively damaged to yield any data using standard procedures. The CPM from the aft unit was removed, but the memory card was also found to be severely compromised.
The AAIB has appointed Sanjay Kumar Singh as Investigator-in-Charge, with Jasbir Singh Larhga named Chief Investigator. Additional investigators include Vipin Venu Varakoth, Veeraragavan K and Vaishnav Vijayakumar.
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A team of subject matter experts, including experienced pilots, engineers, aviation medicine specialists, aviation psychologists, and flight recorder specialists, has also been assembled to assist with the inquiry.
With inputs from PTI
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Time of India
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First Post
5 hours ago
- First Post
Air India plane crash report: How 'Golden Chassis' helped AAIB get raw data from black box
A Golden Chassis is a specialised tool used to recover data from damaged flight recorders. It consists of an identical, undamaged unit of the same model as the affected recorder and is used to interface with its internal memory read more The tail of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane that crashed is seen stuck on a building after the incident in Ahmedabad, India, on June 12. In the aftermath of the crash, Air India continues to cancel several flights. Reuters A highly specialised tool from the United States known as a Golden Chassis helped Indian investigators retrieve critical data from one of the black boxes of Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft that crashed last month, killing 261 people. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said Saturday (July 11) that the tool enabled the recovery of approximately 49 hours of flight data and two hours of cockpit audio, including information from the crash itself. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The aircraft, bound for London, came down seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad on June 12. Investigators retrieved the two Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFRs) and transported them to New Delhi on June 24. The forward black box, or EAFR, remained sufficiently intact for a download attempt at the AAIB lab. The aft recorder, however, was too badly damaged to yield data by conventional methods. How the Golden Chassis works A Golden Chassis is a specialised tool used to recover data from damaged flight recorders. It consists of an identical, undamaged unit of the same model as the affected recorder and is used to interface with its internal memory, known as the Crash Protection Module (CPM). When a recorder is too damaged to power up or connect directly, investigators remove the intact CPM and mount it onto the Golden Chassis. This allows for safe extraction of flight and cockpit voice data. In this case, the required chassis and cables were sourced from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Once the forward CPM was mounted onto the Golden Chassis, flight and audio data from six flights, including the doomed one, were successfully downloaded. 'The recovered audio was two hours in length and captured the event. Initial analysis of the recorded audio and flight data has been done,' the AAIB said in its preliminary report. Ongoing investigation The aft EAFR was found to be too extensively damaged to yield any data using standard procedures. The CPM from the aft unit was removed, but the memory card was also found to be severely compromised. The AAIB has appointed Sanjay Kumar Singh as Investigator-in-Charge, with Jasbir Singh Larhga named Chief Investigator. Additional investigators include Vipin Venu Varakoth, Veeraragavan K and Vaishnav Vijayakumar. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD A team of subject matter experts, including experienced pilots, engineers, aviation medicine specialists, aviation psychologists, and flight recorder specialists, has also been assembled to assist with the inquiry. With inputs from PTI
NDTV
5 hours ago
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Should Changing Switches Have Been A Must? On Air India Crash, Expert Says...
An advisory had been issued by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in 2018 about fuel cutoff switches moving without any force after they get worn out and, in hindsight, it would have been better if changing them had been made mandatory, a former director general of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has said. Speaking to NDTV on Saturday, Group Captain Aurobindo Handa (retired), former director general of the AAIB, also said that he was with the Air Force where no chances are taken on ejection seats and engines and, going by that, "a better application of mind" should have taken place. In its preliminary investigation report on the Air India Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad, the AAIB noted that both engines of the plane had shut down mid-air within seconds of take-off and both fuel cutoff switches moved from 'RUN' to 'CUTOFF' position within a second of each other. This meant no fuel was reaching the engines, causing the plane to lose thrust. The report said that, in the cockpit voice recording, one pilot can be heard asking, "Why did you cut off?" and the other replies, "I did not". Group Captain Handa - who handled at least 100 such investigations, including the August 2020 crash of an Air India Express flight from Dubai to Kozhikode- said it is "extremely difficult" for both fuel cutoff switches to move together and then pointed to the 2018 advisory. "Way back in December 2018, there was an advisory issued by Boeing through the FAA that these gated switches get worn out over a period of time and they can move without any force. They had suggested that they should be checked and, in case they are worn out, they should be changed. But they recommended an on-condition change. On-condition means that if you see a worn-out valve, change it," he pointed out. "But what now, in hindsight, all of us are thinking is that it would have been better had they made it a mandatory change at that point in time... at the same time, there is a saying everyone is wise in hindsight. But, being from the Air Force, let me tell you one thing very clearly: On ejection seats and on engines, we do not take a chance. So, going by that, since this pertained to engine controls and flame-out in air, I think better application of mind should have taken place," the former AAIB chief said. He continued, "When this advisory was issued in the form of a bulletin, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation should have called the senior pilots operating the variants of Boeing and should have told them 'This bulletin has come, please apply your mind and tell us what we should do. So, automatically, there would have been a better collaborative decision... we would have arrived at a better decision." Transparency Group Captain Handa praised India's leadership, in civil aviation and otherwise, for coming out with the preliminary investigation report, saying it was important given how many lives were lost in the crash and because it will give grieving relatives some sense of what happened. The Air India Dreamliner 787-8 - operating as AI flight 171 to London, had crashed into a medical college's hostel in Ahmedabad on June 12, just 32 seconds after taking off. One passenger had miraculously survived, but all the other 241 people on board and at least 20 on the ground were killed. On whether the crash raises concerns about the accountability of the manufacturer, operator or regulatory bodies, the former AAIB chief said it is hard to say at this point because the investigation is only in its initial stages. "We should wait for at least four, five months because it is a long-drawn process... The evidence is comparatively low in this crash," he sai, urging everyone to refrain from speculation.
