Voice Recorders Fired Up After Air India Crash
All 156 people on board the flight destined for Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi perished in the crash. Voice recorders, commonly known as black boxes, were retrieved from the crash site and will be sent to Delhi for analysis. Investigators will look for the cause of the abrupt climb that took place just before the plane went down and any evidence of pilot error or a mid-air collision with something.
Air India Flight AI-345
This flight was scheduled to take off at 1:30 pm IST on Sunday and connect the Indian capital with the southern Indian city of Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, with a stopover in Dubai. The plane was a Boeing 737 Neo, a fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer's workhorse narrowbody jet that is extremely common across the world. In India, this type of aircraft is deployed by many carriers and is a workhorse of the domestic economy.
The Investigative Journey Ahead
Voice recorders will provide valuable audio evidence that can help pinpoint the cause of the crash. The devices start recording from the moment the aircraft undergoes acceleration for a takeoff and capture all noises inside the cockpit. This includes conversations between the pilots as well as with air traffic control, along with any other audible warnings or alerts that might have been triggered during the flight.
Depending on how long the flight lasted, the recordings could provide a wealth of information to understand what happened in the moments leading up to the crash.
