Possibility of sabotage in plane crash strengthens, report says intact black box damaged

NEW DELHI: Report says the black box of Air India Dreamliner Boeing 787 plane that crashed in Ahmedabad, is damaged. The central government has decided to send the black box to the US as local experts are unable to collect information. The new move of the authorities is at a time when the possibility of a sabotage in the Ahmedabad plane crash that killed 270 people strengthened.

The black box will be sent to National Safety Transport Laboratory in Washington for examination. The information obtained will then be handed over to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau. They have the main charge of the investigation.

The second black box of the crashed plane was found by the investigation team on June 16. The plane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were recovered last week.

Meantime, the investigation team has not ruled out the possibility of a terrorist link in the plane crash. Maintenance and ground handling staff are being questioned in detail. Their mobile phones have been seized. CCTV footage is also being examined.

The Gujarat Police, Airports Authority and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation are also investigating. A high-level committee formed by the central government is also investigating. The data in the cockpit voice recorder and black box is being scrutinized. The US National Transportation Safety Board and the US Federal Aviation Administration are conducting a parallel investigation. Boeing company officials and aviation experts from UK are camping in Ahmedabad.

Has a mistake occurred from the plane’s pilot? Did a technical fault cause the accident? Was there a flaw in the aircraft design? Was the engine maintenance not carried out properly? The investigation team is seeking answers to these questions.

Suspicions are increasing that both engines of the aircraft failed simultaneously and the electrical and hydraulic systems did not work at full capacity. It is suspected that the RAT (Ram Air Turbine), which operates automatically in this situation, also operated on the Dreamliner. The RAT is a small turbine that provides hydraulic and electrical power to the aircraft in emergency situations. There is a sound that can be believed to be the RAT operating in the video released yesterday. There is also an indication that the engine of the crashed aircraft was replaced three months ago. The old engine on the right side was replaced in March.