The flight data recorder from AirAsia QZ8501 is placed into a container upon its arrival at the airbase in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan January 12, 2015.
Indonesian navy divers have retrieved the flight data recorder from the AirAsia plane that went down in the Java Sea more than two weeks ago, in a potential breakthrough in discovering the cause of the crash.
Officials said the flight data recorder will be taken to the capital, Jakarta, where it could take up to two weeks to download and analyze its information.
Divers have also located the cockpit voice recorder, but it could not be immediately recovered because it was wedged under heavy wreckage.
S.B. Supriyadi, a director of Indonesia's search-and-rescue agency, said efforts would resume Tuesday to recover it, including using an airbag to lift the section of the wing where is it is stuck.
It is hoped that the information contained on the two recorders will help investigators determine why the Airbus A320 plunged into the sea less than halfway into its two-hour flight from Surabaya to Singapore on December 28, killing all 162 people aboard.
Crash speculation
Supriyadi said initial analysis showed that part of the plane may have exploded when it hit water due to changes in air pressure. However officials have urged experts not to speculate until the initial investigation is completed.
So far, 48 bodies have been recovered.
Search officials said they expect more bodies will be found in the submerged fuselage of the plane, which is in the sea’s relatively shallow waters.
Indonesia’s transport ministry suspended AirAsia’s license for the Surabaya-Singapore route, for which it did not have permission to fly on that ill-fated Sunday. But the ministry said this had no bearing on the crash of Flight 8501, which is believed to have encountered a severe storm.
Before takeoff and during the last moments of the flight, the pilots requested to fly at a higher altitude to avoid a storm. The request was not approved because other planes were in the area.
Indonesia President Joko Widodo said the crash has brought to light widespread problems with air travel management in the country, the world’s fourth largest, which sprawls across an archipelago composed of thousands of islands. |
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