Indonesian
divers have found one of the crucial black box flight recorders of the
AirAsia plane that crashed in the Java Sea two weeks ago with 162 people
aboard, officials have said.
Henry
Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, said
the data recorder was brought to the surface by four divers early on
Monday morning.
He also said the search continues for the cockpit voice recorder.
Divers
began to zero in on the site a day earlier after picking up intense
pings from its beacons, but they were unable to get a visual on it due
to strong currents and poor visibility.
The
cockpit voice and flight data recorders are vital to understanding what
brought Flight 8501 down on December 28, killing all 162 people on
board.
“The
navy divers in Jadayat state boat have succeeded in finding a very
important instrument, the black box of AirAsia QZ8501,” Tonny Budiono, a
senior ministry official, had said.
The recorders were at a depth of 30-32 metres, Budiono added.
The
Indonesian meteorological agency has said stormy weather likely caused
the Airbus A320-200 to crash as it flew from the Indonesian city of
Surabaya to Singapore.
But
a definitive answer is impossible without the black box, which should
contain the pilots’ final words as well as various flight data.
SB
Supriyadi, a director with the National Search and Rescue Agency, told
reporters on Sunday that an object believed to be the plane’s main body
had also been detected near the source of the pings.
The search, which has involved US, Chinese and other international naval ships, has recovered 48 bodies so far.
Supriyadi said many bodies were believed trapped in the cabin, so reaching that part of the wreckage was also a top priority.
The tail of the plane, with its red AirAsia logo, was lifted out of the water on Saturday using giant balloons and a crane.
It was brought by tugboat on Sunday to a port near the search headquarters, at Pangkalan Bun town on Borneo island.
All but seven of those on board the flight were Indonesian.
The
bodies of a South Korean couple were identified on Sunday, but their
11-month-old baby remains unaccounted for, Indonesian authorities said.
The
other foreigners were one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one Briton and a
Frenchman — co-pilot Remi Plesel. Their bodies have not been recovered.
While
the cause of the crash is unknown, the disaster has once again placed
Indonesia’s chaotic aviation industry under scrutiny.
Indonesian
officials have alleged Indonesia AirAsia did not have a licence to fly
the route on the day of the crash, although the airline rejects the
claim.
Indonesia’s
Transport Ministry quickly banned AirAsia from flying the
Surabaya-Singapore route. On Friday it suspended dozens more routes
operated by five other domestic airlines for similar licence violations.
aljazeera.com