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Black boxes recovered, data downloaded in Delhi crash

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Protection Module safely retrieved and data accessed

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CVR and FDR analysis may reveal critical details

By Sakshi Dayal, Allison Lampert and David Shepardson

NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) - Investigators

have downloaded flight recorder data from an Air India crash

this month that killed 260 people, India's civil aviation

ministry said on Thursday, a long-awaited step towards

understanding the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.

The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed

moments after takeoff from India's Ahmedabad city on June 12,

killing 241 of the 242 people on board and the rest on the

ground.

The black boxes of the plane - the cockpit voice recorder

(CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) - were recovered in the

days that followed, one from the rooftop of a building at the

crash site on June 13, and the other from the debris on June 16.

The ministry said data from the front recorder was accessed

on Wednesday by a team led by India's Aircraft Accident

Investigation Bureau (AAIB), with the U.S. National

Transportation Safety Board.

"These efforts aim to reconstruct the sequence of events

leading to the accident and identify contributing factors to

enhance aviation safety and prevent future occurrences," the

ministry said in a statement.

U.S. National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer

Homendy told Reuters on Thursday she hopes the Indian government

will be able to share details from the investigation into the

crash in short order.

"For aviation safety and for public safety and public

awareness we hope that they will make their findings public

swiftly," Homendy said on the sidelines of an aviation event.

She said the NTSB team has been working diligently to

provide assistance to India and "we have had excellent

cooperation from the Indian government and the AAIB."

The probe into the crash of the Air India plane, which

started losing height after reaching an altitude of 650 feet,

includes a focus on engine thrust, according to a source with

knowledge of the matter.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that investigators

believe the Dreamliner had its emergency-power generator

operating when it crashed.

Most air crashes are caused by multiple factors, with a

preliminary report expected about 30 days after the accident.

Two GE recorders, one in the jet's front and another

at the rear, are installed on Boeing's ( BA ) 787 jets and record the

same set of flight data. GE, which sent experts to India,

manufactured the engines on the Air India 787 and also produced

the combined flight data and cockpit voice recorder, called an

"enhanced airborne flight recorder".

The forward recorder is equipped with an independent power

supply that provides backup power to the device for about 10

minutes if the plane's power source is lost, the NTSB said in a

2014 report.

The decision to begin downloading recorder data around two

weeks after the crash was unusually late, three experts told

Reuters, and followed speculation that the so-called black boxes

could be sent to the United States for analysis.

U.S. aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse said accident

investigators would typically have already given some update on

the recorders' status, and have begun downloading data in such a

high profile crash.

"Normally countries know that the world is watching," he

said.

India said last week that it was yet to decide where the

black boxes would be analyzed. The data retrieved from them

could provide critical clues into the aircraft's performance and

any conversations between the pilots preceding the crash.

India has said its actions have been taken in full

compliance with domestic laws and international obligations in a

time bound manner.