Air India crash: Indian investigators told lawmakers black boxes undamaged, say sources

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The preliminary report from investigation into the crash is likely to be made public by July 11.

PHOTO: REUTERS

NEW DELHI - Indian investigators of the deadly Air India airliner crash that killed 260 in June told a meeting of lawmakers that the planes black boxes were not damaged, two people familiar with the discussions said.

The revelation about the devices critical to reconstructing the events leading up to an air crash, comes after Indian media said they were damaged when the London-bound Boeing Dreamliner

crashed on June 12

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has also been able to extract good data from the black boxes, its officials told lawmakers on July 9 during a parliamentary panel meeting on aviation, added one of the sources.

Both sources declined to be identified as the discussions are private. The AAIB and Indias aviation ministry did not respond to Reuters queries.

The planes cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR),as the black boxes are formally known, were recovered in the days after the crash, one from a rooftop at the site on June 13, and the other from debris on June 16.

The preliminary report from investigation into the crash is likely to be made public by July 11, Reuters has previously reported.

The crash investigation had narrowed its focus to the movement of the planes fuel control switches,