The Gujarat Police has started shifting the wreckage of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed into a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad on June 12 to a site near the city’s airport, where investigators will attempt to piece the debris back together for analysis. A truck carrying wreckage of the Air India plane that recently crashed into a medical hostel and its canteen complex passes by, in Ahmedabad, on Sunday. (PTI)

“The pieces are being moved from the crash site. Some were relocated on Saturday, and the work continued on Sunday. Every piece of wreckage is being transported from the crash site to a new location for reconstruction,” said Ahmedabad police commissioner GS Malik.

Officials aware of the matter said it would take between 48 and 72 hours to move the entire wreckage of the nearly 120-tonne aircraft, which plunged into the BJ Medical College hostel 33 seconds after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport, killing all but one of its 242 passengers and crew and at least 30 people on the ground.

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HT had reported on June 20 that the debris are being moved to a site near the Gujarat State Aviation Infrastructure Company Limited (GUJSAIL) office near the airport, on land owned by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which has been identified for use in the ongoing investigation.

“Reconstructed parts of the aircraft will be examined to determine what led to the crash. The black box will be analysed as part of this process,” Malik said.

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India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is probing the crash, while the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading a parallel international investigation into the plane crash.

At least 247 persons killed in the crash have so far been identified through DNA matching and 232 bodies handed over to their families, as per officials.

Both sets of flight recorders from the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner have been recovered – the first combined Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) unit was found on June 13, with the second set located on June 16. The B787 aircraft model carries two black box sets – one under the cockpit and the other in the tail section — as standard.

The debris removal and transportation process typically involves careful cataloguing and preservation of aircraft components that could provide crucial evidence about the crash sequence.

Investigators must maintain a strict chain of custody for all materials, with larger structural components often moved to specialised facilities where they can be reconstructed to understand the aircraft’s final moments. Critical components like engines and control surfaces undergo detailed metallurgical and mechanical analysis to identify any failures or anomalies that may have contributed to the accident.