Air Asia crash: Cockpit voice recorder recovered

Latest: The cockpit voice recorder from the Air Asia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month carrying 162 people was recovered Tuesday and taken to an Indonesian navy ship, an official said.

"The CVR (cockpit voice recorder) has been found and lifted from the sea," said an official involved with the search, who requested anonymity.

The official added that the device had been taken to the navy ship Banda Aceh.

Divers had already retrieved the other black box, the flight data recorder, from the sea on Monday.

The recorders hold vital information about the last moments of flight QZ8501, which crashed on December 28 as it flew from Indonesia's Surabaya to Singapore, and will help investigators to find out what caused the accident.
 

Black Box recovered

Indonesian divers Monday retrieved the flight data recorder of the AirAsia plane that went down in the Java Sea a fortnight ago with 162 people on board, a crucial breakthrough that should help explain what caused the crash.

The recorder, one of two black boxes containing vital information, was brought to the surface at 7:11 am (0011 GMT), said national search and rescue chief Bambang Soelistyo, after a lengthy, frustrating search often hampered by bad weather.

“We succeeded in bringing up part of the black box that we call the flight data recorder,” Soelistyo told reporters in the capital Jakarta.

He said that it was found under the wreckage of a wing and added that divers were still hunting for the second black box, the cockpit voice recorder.

National Transport Safety Committee senior investigator Mardjono Siswosuwarno told AFP that the black boxes would be sent to Jakarta and analysed at the committee's laboratory.

The flight data recorder monitors factors such as airspeed and heading, while the cockpit voice recorder stores radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit.

Pings

Indonesian authorities said Sunday strong signals were emanating from the crucial black box recorders of an Air Asia plane that crashed into the sea two weeks ago.

Military divers were trying to follow the pings to the boxes, believed to be on the floor of the Java Sea about 30 metres (100 feet) underwater, S.B Supriyadi, a director with the National Search and Rescue Agency told AFP.

The hunt came after the mangled tail of the Airbus jet was lifted from the sea on Saturday.

"The ping was detected about one kilometre (0.6 miles) east of the tail," Supriyadi told AFP at the search headquarters of Panglakun Bun.

Tail of crashed plane lifted to surface

Indonesian military divers chased Saturday faint signals believed to be from the black box data recorders of an AirAsia plane that crashed in stormy weather, killing all 162 people on board.

The tail of an AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea was lifted to the surface on Saturday, according to an AFP photographer aboard a nearby Indonesian Navy ship.

Floating balloons were used to lift the tail - the biggest part of the plane's wreckage found since the crash.

The Airbus jet went missing on December 28 as it flew from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, and the tail of the plane was found 10 days later on the floor of the Java Sea.

Search efforts have since focused heavily on trying to find the black boxes, which are crucial to explaining why the plane crashed as they should contain the pilots' final words as well as various flight data.

Pings from the boxes, which were stored securely in the tail, were detected on Friday, raising hopes of quickly retrieving them.

But the search took another frustrating twist when authorities realised the pings were likely coming away from the tail, and the boxes appeared to be buried deep into the sea floor.

"Last night, our divers had opened the door of the tail cabin, searched around but found nothing," S.B Supriyadi, a director with the National Search and Rescue Agency, told AFP.

"But the boat above detected faint ping sounds believed to be from the black boxes about one mile (1.6 kilometres) southeast of the tail... and covered in mud."

Supriyadi said the divers, from an elite Marines unit, returned on Saturday morning to the area believed to be where the pings were emanating from more than 30 metres (100 feet) underwater.

"They are searching within a radius of 500 metres from where the pings are emitted. The challenge is that these sounds are very faint. If a ship passes by, the sounds will be drowned out. So we really need calm waters," he said.

"So far, our divers still have not been able to determine the coordinates of the black box."

Meanwhile, a parallel operation was taking place nearby from the Indonesian Navy's KRI Banda Aceh warship to lift the tail of the plane out of the water using giant balloons.

The balloons, some with a capacity to lift 35 tonnes, were to be attached to the tail, according to officials involved in the operation.

American, Chinese and other foreign naval ships are also involved in the hunt for other parts of the plane's wreckage, as well as for the bodies of the passengers and crew.

Just 48 bodies have been found so far, according to Indonesian authorities.

All but seven of those on board were Indonesian.

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