Divers retrieve flight data recorder of AirAsia Flight 8501, locate CVR
12 Jan 2015
Divers retrieved the flight data recorder of doomed AirAsia Flight 8501 today and located the cockpit voice recorder on the floor of the Java Sea, a vital breakthrough in the investigation into what caused the crash that killed all 162 people on board 28 December, Associated Press reported.
According to Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, the operation coordinator at Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, the voice recorder, one of the two so-called "black boxes," was located hours after the flight data recorder was brought to the surface.
He added that the recorder was stuck under heavy wreckage and divers were working to retrieve it at a depth of 105 feet.
After three Indonesian ships picked up strong pings from the area, searchers had been busy combing the site, but poor visibility and strong currents had hampered operations in the region's rainy season. Silt and sand, coupled with river runoff, had made it doubly difficult for divers to locate the ''black boxes.''
The flight data recorder, which was found under part of the downed plane's wing at a depth of 100 feet, would be taken to Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, for analysis and downloading its information could take up to two weeks to according to Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator at the National Committee for Safety Transportation.
According to Supriyadi, the voice recorder was about 20 meters (66 feet) away from the data recorder but remained lodged under heavy wreckage, Fox News reported with inputs from Associated Press.
It is expected that the instruments retrieved would provide essential information about the plane to investigators and conversations between the captain and co-pilot for the duration of the flight.
According to John Goglia, a former US National Transportation Safety Board member there were like 200-plus parameters they recorded. The aviation safety expert said it was going to provide the investigators an ocean of material.
The flight data recorder would be taken to Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, for evaluation, while the other black box would be sent as soon as was retrieved.