By Abhijith Ganapavaram and David Shepardson
NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The black box of the Air India jet that crashed and killed 271 people is still in India and is being examined by the aircraft accident investigation body, news agency ANI reported on Tuesday, citing civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu.
Naidu’s comments came following a media report that the flight data recorder will be sent to the United States for analysis.
“Black box of the crashed AI 171 flight is still in India and it is being examined by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB),” Naidu said, according to an ANI post on social media platform X.
The June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, India, was the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.
The Indian government said on Thursday that a decision on where the decoding of the recorders would take place would be made after the AAIB has made a “due assessment” of all technical, safety and security considerations.
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that she has had “excellent communication with those within the Indian government, the Ministry of Civil Aviation, also our counterpart at the AAIB.”
Asked where or when the recorders will be read or if they would come to the United States or whether officials had any concerns, Homendy declined to comment.
“That is something that has to be worked out,” Homendy said. “When it comes to aviation safety, learning information shortly thereafter and obtaining that information is a key part of the investigative process, so clearly that’s going to help us glean more information to ensure, ‘Is there a safety issue or safety deficiency that needs to be addressed?'”
Homendy also declined to comment on whether either recorder had been damaged.
(Reporting by Abhijith Ganapavaram in New Delhi and David Shepardson in WashingtonEditing by Andrew Heavens and Matthew Lewis)
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