Pakistan, June 27 -- Investigators have downloaded the flight recorder data from the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed on June 12, killing 260 people. This marks a crucial step toward understanding the cause of the disaster, India's civil aviation ministry said on Thursday.

The plane, bound for London, crashed just minutes after taking off from Ahmedabad city. Of the 242 people on board, 241 lost their lives, along with several individuals on the ground. The crash is the deadliest aviation accident in a decade.

Two black boxes were recovered in the days following the crash. The cockpit voice recorder was found on the rooftop of a building near the crash site on June 13, while the flight data recorder was recovered from the de...