Navy Divers Find AirAsia Black Box: Transportation Ministry

Jakarta Globe & Agencies, Jan 11, 2015

The tail of the AirAsia QZ8501 passenger plane lies on the deck of the
 Indonesian Search and Rescue (Basarnas) ship Crest Onyx after it was
recovered at sea on Jan. 10, 2015. (Antara Photo/Prasetyo Utomo)

Jakarta. Indonesian divers on Sunday found the black box of the AirAsia plane which crashed in the Java Sea a fortnight ago with 162 people aboard, the transportation ministry said.

But they failed to retrieve it because it was stuck under debris from the main body of the plane, it added.

“The navy divers in Jadayat state boat have succeeded in finding a very important instrument, the black box of AirAsia QZ8501,” said Tonny Budiono, a senior ministry official.

Tonny said the black box’s coordinates were 03.37.21 South/109.42.42 East at a depth of 30 to 32 meters.

Divers will attempt to recover the flight data recorder tomorrow.

“Because of time constraints, [we] have decided to retrieve the black boxes tomorrow morning by gradually shifting these layers of aircraft body debris,” Tonny said.

But if that fails, Tonny said divers would lift the debris using inflatable balloons, the same technique used to lift the tail section on Saturday.

Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir, however, denied that the black box had been found, saying divers could not confirm its exact location due to poor weather and visibility.

Earlier on Sunday three search vessels detected pings about five kilometers from where the tail of the Airbus A320-200 aircraft was raised on Saturday.

Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control during thundery weather on Dec. 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors.

Forty-eight bodies have been found in the Java Sea off Kalimantan.

If and when the recorders are found and taken to Jakarta, for analysis, it could take up to two weeks to download data, investigators said, although the information could be accessed in as little as two days if the devices are not badly damaged.

The aircraft carries cockpit voice and flight data recorders — or black boxes — near its tail but once the wreckage was visible, it quickly became apparent that the flight recorders were still underwater.