The aviation ministry on Saturday said that the flight data recorder of the Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday has been found, adding that the flight had climbed 650 feet in the air before it started descending.

The flight data recorder (FDR), one of the two black boxes of the aircraft, was found on a rooftop. Its recovery is expected to shed light on the factors that led to the crash.

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Black boxes, crucial flight data recorders painted bright orange, play an essential role in aviation safety. They capture uninterrupted flight data, aiding investigations after crashes, like the recent Air India incident.

With the data retrieved from the DFDR, investigators can generate a computer animated video reconstruction of the flight

Upstream Aviation Director Tim Collins says the Boeing 787 Air India crash could be due to “several things” which will only be discovered once all data has been collected.