Can The Black Box Lie?

Air India plane crash preliminary report is out. An aviation expert Mellissa Chen claims pilot may have deliberately crash-landed it. She speculated it to a cockpit confusion or “one of them (the pilots) committed suicide and took everyone with him.” Speculations can be wrong too and let us wait for the full official report based on black box data. Here let us what is a black box and can it lie? Meanwhile, the airline pilots association of India (APAI) has objected to the release of the report, and wants role in the inquiry.

The recent tragic crash of a Boeing Dreamliner on its way from Ahmedabad to London has once again shaken our belief in the safety of air travel. The aircraft, which crashed within a minute of takeoff, fell on a medical college hostel near the airport. The horror multiplied as not only the passengers and crew lost their lives, but also several students who were in their rooms at the time. Only one passenger reportedly survived—an unlikely miracle in airplane crashes. This incident is not isolated. Airplane crashes, though rare compared to other transport mishaps, are often devastating when they occur.

The immediate focus after such a crash is always the same: rescue the living, retrieve the dead. Emergency teams rush to the site, often braving fire, debris, and chaos. Families of passengers wait in helpless anxiety, hoping for a name on the survivor’s list. But soon after the human side of the disaster is addressed, the technical side begins—the hunt for the black box.

The black box is not actually black—it is painted bright orange to make it easier to locate among wreckage. It’s made up of two components: the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). Together, these devices hold the last words of pilots, the sound of warning alarms, and detailed technical data of the aircraft’s operations in its final moments.

Finding the black box is often the only way to know what really happened. In deep oceans or mountainous terrains, it is the single hope investigators hold onto to reconstruct the sequence of failure. In the case of the 2009 Air France Flight 447 crash over the Atlantic, it took nearly two years to locate the black box. Yet, once recovered, it explained how miscommunication between the pilots and faulty instruments led to the aircraft’s fall.

This question has often haunted conspiracy theorists and families of victims: Can the data in a black box be tampered with? Officially, the answer is no. The recorders are made tamper-proof. They are locked, sealed, and coded, with strict access control. However, in politically sensitive crashes, where governments or big corporations might face blame, the doubts linger.

While no confirmed case of tampering has been officially recorded, delayed release of data, missing portions of recordings, and contradictory reports have at times raised suspicions. In India, the crash of Air India Flight 855 in 1978, which fell into the Arabian Sea on New Year’s Day killing all 213 aboard, had its black box recovered. However, the final report concluded “pilot error” in such a brief manner that many families felt their questions were left unanswered. Some believe technical failure was downplayed to protect the airline’s reputation.

Though rare, there are stories that stand out—tales of survival that seem to challenge all logic. In 2010, a 9-year-old Dutch boy was the sole survivor of a Libyan air crash that killed 103 people. He was found strapped to a seat, unconscious, but alive. In 1971, a 17-year-old girl named Juliane Koepcke fell 10,000 feet from a disintegrating airplane over the Amazon rainforest. She survived with a broken collarbone and trekked alone for 11 days until found.

On the other side, there are other tales, where victims send final messages to loved ones. The Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished in 2014 with 239 people on board, still remains one of the most haunting aviation mysteries. Its black box has never been recovered. Without it, families continue to live in uncertainty, with no closure.

Modern airplanes are some of the most technically advanced machines ever built. Yet, failures still happen. Sensors can malfunction, human error can misjudge, and sometimes, nature overpowers machine—lightning, bird strikes, or microbursts.

In most cases, black boxes help fix such failures for the future. After the 737 MAX series experienced two crashes within five months in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people, the black boxes revealed how an automatic software system was pushing the aircraft’s nose down. The result was a massive global grounding of the aircraft and one of the biggest reputation crises for Boeing.

But here’s the catch—air crash investigations can take years, and by then, the attention of the public fades. Governments quietly release final reports, technical changes are made, but the emotional cost is permanent.

One crucial question arises—can we do more to prevent such disasters? While aviation authorities across the world, including India’s DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation), have put strict standards in place, enforcement and monitoring remain a challenge. Many older aircraft are still in operation, pilot training differs across airlines, and pressure to cut costs often leads to negligence in safety checks.

Moreover, airport safety infrastructure needs constant upgrading. In the case of the Ahmedabad-London Dreamliner crash, questions must be asked: Was there a technical fault ignored? Was the runway properly cleared for takeoff? Why was a medical hostel located so close to a high-risk air corridor?

Air crash investigations must be independent, transparent, and time-bound. The public has a right to know the truth—not a sanitized version. Families deserve full disclosure. Investigators must resist political or commercial pressure. The black box should be sacred—not just in color or shape, but in purpose and integrity.

The recent tragedy in India has reopened old wounds. But it must also open new doors of reform. Perhaps, it is time for governments and global agencies to make black box data open access after a reasonable time. Perhaps, AI can help monitor real-time flight anomalies and warn both pilots and ground staff before a crash occurs.

Every time we board a flight, we surrender our lives to an unseen team—a pilot in a closed cockpit, a ground staff checking signals, and a machine designed by hundreds of unknown engineers. We do so not out of fearlessness, but out of trust.

That trust is broken each time an airplane falls from the sky. It is rebuilt, slowly, with accountability, transparency, and change. The black box is not just a device; it is a silent witness of truth. We must listen to it. And we must ensure that its voice is never muted.

Dr. Ashraf Zainabi is a teacher and researcher based in Gowharpora Chadoora J&K