Families of those killed in the Air India AI-171 crash have asked the AAIB to release the black box data and cockpit transcript. They say greater transparency is essential to establish the truth and honour victims with a memorial.
Families of those killed in the Air India AI-171 crash have asked the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) to release the black box data and the cockpit voice recorder transcript, questioning why the material is being withheld while the agency has said it will share only its final probe report. They also sought greater transparency in the investigation and raised questions over the role of simulator tests in the ongoing inquiry.
The demands were reiterated at a meeting of victims’ relatives on Sunday, against the backdrop of the AAIB’s affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that there is an “absolute statutory prohibition” on disclosing cockpit voice recordings and airborne image recordings from the June 12, 2025, crash.
The London Gatwick-bound flight had crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 people on the ground after the Boeing 787 Dreamliner hit the BJ Medical College hostel complex.
Addressing reporters after the meeting, Romin Vahora, who lost his brother, niece and aunt in the tragedy, asked how parts of the cockpit conversation had surfaced soon after the crash if the authorities believed such material should not be made public.
“If they never intended to release the data, why did they release a cockpit voice recording transcript (as part of preliminary report) just a few days after the crash?” Vahora asked. He said the families wanted to know whether the selective disclosure was meant to “shift the blame onto the pilots or mislead the victims’ families”.
Vahora said the families wanted the raw black box data to be made public, given to the families, or shared with the lawyers representing them. “If they only give us a summarised report, what guarantee do we have that it is accurate? Until the actual black box data is released, nobody can definitively assure us whether the report is true or false,” he said.
He added that the families had not yet started legal proceedings and were waiting for the final investigation report, while their lawyers were exploring all legal options to obtain the data. He also said the families would continue their efforts to access the black box material and, if the report was not released within the timeline mentioned in the AAIB affidavit, they would consider protests after taking permission from the authorities.
The AAIB told the Supreme Court last week that the draft final report on the crash was expected to be ready in October this year. In its detailed affidavit, the agency said sensitive investigative material, including witness statements, cockpit voice recorder recordings and transcripts, air traffic control communications and medical information, must remain confidential because disclosure could affect the integrity of the ongoing investigation and future aviation safety inquiries.
The victims’ families also repeated their demand for a permanent memorial at the AI-171 crash site. Vahora urged the government, Air India and the Tata Group to earmark land and funds for a monument to honour the victims. Another relative, lawyer Saloni Palkhiwala, who lost her sister Sanjana Palkhiwala in the crash, said the government should use its powers to make an exception and release at least the cockpit conversation transcript, if not the audio.
“It has been one year, one month and nine days. The least they could do is let the families know what happened in the last few seconds,” she said, adding that transcripts had been released in several major international air crash investigations.