’s (AAIB) preliminary findings on the fatal Air India Boeing 787-8 crash reveal that the flight recordings were left damaged. The Air India flight was equipped with two Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFR), fitted at two locations, one in the tail section at STA 1847 and other in the forward section. The two EAFRs are similar in construction and record a combined data stream of digital flight data and cockpit voice information, with both stored on the same device.

"Both EAFRs were transported from Ahmedabad to AAIB’s facility at New Delhi on 24th June 2025. Like various other cases where the data from damaged flight recorders was downloaded by AAIB after sourcing ‘Golden Chassis’ and relevant download cables from the DGCA and other Accident Investigation Authorities, in this case the ‘Golden Chassis’ (Identical EAFR unit) and Download cables required to download data from EAFR were sourced from NTSB, USA. The items arrived on 23rd June 2025," said the report.

"The download from the FWD EAFR was attempted at the AAIB Lab on 24th June 2025. The CPM was retrieved from the EAFR and found to be in good condition. The CPM was mounted on the Golden Chassis and the raw data was downloaded from the EAFR. The downloaded flight data contained approximately 49 hours of flight data and 6 flights, including the event flight. The recovered audio was two hours in length and captured the event. Initial Analysis of the recorded audio and flight data has been done. The aft EAFR was substantially damaged and could not be downloaded through conventional means. The CPM was opened to inspect the memory card. The damage was extensive," added the report.

The aft EAFR receives electrical power from the aircraft’s main electrical system. The forward EAFR contains an additional power source from the Recorder Independent Power Supply (RIPS), a system that provides electrical power to the forward EAFR in the event of a power or bus loss on the aircraft. This allows the forward EAFR to continue to record available digital flight data, and voice data from the Cockpit Area Microphone (CAM), even after power is lost to other aircraft systems.