Key information second black box from Air India crash will reveal as investigators find it
Key information about the final moments of doomed Air India flight 171 to be revealed after investigators recover the aircraft's second black box.
On 12 June, the London Gatwick bound plane crashed just seconds after taking off from an airport in Ahmedabad, colliding with a residential hostel for the city's B. J. Medical College.
241 out of the 242 passengers and crew onboard the flight - which included 169 Indians, 53 Brits, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian - died in the crash, with one man miraculously surviving after escaping though an emergency exit.
Officials have since confirmed that 270 bodies have been recovered from the site, which includes 30 people who were killed on the ground.
Advert
An investigation to determine the cause of the crash is currently ongoing.
Officials have now confirmed that both of the black boxes have been recovered from the aircraft, which means that investigators will be able to determine exactly what happened in during flight 171's final seconds in the air.
What is an aeroplane black box and what do they tell us about aviation accidents?
Commercial aircraft carry two flight recorders - often referred to as 'black boxes', despite being painted bright orange - which record key information about flight data and conversations which take place in the cockpit.
The data found within these boxes has often proven to be critical in piecing together exactly what happened during several aviation accidents.
All aircraft will typically have two black boxes: a flight data recorder - which records the plane's speed, altitude, engine performance and, flight control movements and a cockpit voice recorder - which records conversations between pilots and any alarm sounds.
According to MailOnline, India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) recovered the flight data recorder on Friday morning on the rooftop of a building.
The cockpit voice recorder has now been recovered, which will allow investigators to hear the conversations between captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his co-pilot Clive Kundar in the moments leading up to the deadly crash.
Sabharwal's final words to air-traffic controllers have already been revealed, with the pilot understood to have called out 'mayday' as the jet struggled to gain altitude in the seconds after take off.
Sabharwal then reportedly warned that there was 'no thrust' and that he was 'unable to lift' less than 650ft in the air.
The recovery of both boxes will allow investigators to piece together exactly what happened in Air India flight 171's final moments, which suggestions from aviation experts so far including double engine failure, issues with the aircraft's flaps and a bird strike.
Topics: Air India, Travel, World News
Brenna Cooper