Divers yesterday recovered a flight data recorder [FDR] from the crashed Lion Air jet on the seafloor, a crucial development in the investigation into what caused the two-month-old plane to plunge into Indonesian seas earlier this week, killing all 189 people on board.
One TV station showed footage of two divers after they surfaced, swimming to an inflatable vessel and placing the bright orange device into a large container that was transferred to a search-and-rescue ship.
“I was desperate because the current below was strong, but I am confident of the tools given to me,” said navy First Sergeant Hendra, who uses a single name, in a television interview.
Photo: Reuters
After narrowing the possible location, “I started digging and cleaning the debris until I finally found an orange object,” he said.
The Boeing 737 MAX plane crashed early on Monday just minutes after takeoff from the capital Jakarta. It was the worst airline disaster in Indonesia in more than two decades and renewed concerns about safety in its fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from EU and US blacklists.
Navy Colonel Monang Sitompul told local TV an object believed to be the aircraft’s fuselage was also seen on the seafloor.
The device recovered by divers is the flight data recorder and the search for the cockpit voice recorder continues, said Bambang Irawan, an investigator with the indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee.
“We will process the data contained in this FDR as part of the investigation process to find out the cause of the crash,” he said. “We cannot say how long it takes to process data in a black box, but of course we will try as soon as possible.”
The find was about 500m northwest of the coordinates where the plane lost contact and at a depth of 30m, Indonesian National Agency of Search and Rescue head Muhammad Syaugi said.
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