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| Indonesian divers hold FDR (Flight Data Recorder) of the AirAsia flight QZ8501 onboard the navy vessel KRI Banda Aceh, Monday, Jan. 12, 2015. Divers retrieved one black box Monday and located the other from the AirAsia plane that crashed more than two weeks ago, a key development that should help investigators unravel what caused the aircraft to plummet into the Java Sea. |
PANGKALAN BUN,
Indonesia (AP) -- Divers retrieved the crashed AirAsia plane's
second black box from the bottom of the Java Sea on Tuesday, giving
investigators essential tools to piece together what brought Flight 8501
down.
The cockpit voice recorder was freed
from beneath the heavy ruins of a wing early in the morning from a depth
of about 30 meters (98 feet), a day after the aircraft's flight data
recorder was recovered, said Tonny Budiono, sea navigation director at
the Transportation Ministry.
"Thank God," he said. "This is good news for investigators to reveal the cause of the plane crash."
The
device will be flown to the capital, Jakarta, to be downloaded and
analyzed with the other box. Since it records in a two-hour loop, all
discussions between the captain and co-pilot should be available.
The
plane crashed 42 minutes into a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia, to
Singapore on Dec. 28. All 162 people on board were killed, but only 48
bodies have been recovered so far.
The find is the latest boost in the slow-moving hunt to scour the shallow, murky stretch of ocean.
Over
the weekend, the tail of the Airbus A320 was recovered, emblazoned with
the carrier's red-and-white cursive logo. The black boxes are housed
inside the tail, but were missing when the wreckage was pulled to the
surface.
The devices were soon located after
three Indonesian ships detected two strong pings being emitted from
their beacons, about 20 meters (22 yards) apart. Strong currents, large
waves and blinding silt have hindered divers' efforts throughout the
17-day search, but they took advantage of calmer early morning
conditions on both days to extract the instruments.
The
information pulled from the black boxes - which are actually orange -
will likely be vital. Designed to survive extreme heat and pressure,
they should provide investigators with a second-by-second timeline of
the flight.
The voice recorder captures all
conversations between the pilots and with air traffic controllers, as
well as any noises heard in the cockpit, including possible alarms or
explosions. The flight data recorder saves information on the position
and condition of almost every major part in the plane, including
altitude, airspeed, direction, engine thrust, the rate of ascent or
descent and what up-or-down angle the plane was pointed.
"There's
like 200-plus parameters they record," said aviation expert John
Goglia, a former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board member. "It's
going to provide us an ocean of material."
In
their last contact with air-traffic controllers, the pilots of the
AirAsia jet asked to climb from 32,000 feet (9,750 meters) to 38,000
feet (11,580 meters) to avoid threatening clouds, but were denied
permission because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the plane
dropped off the radar. No distress signal was received.
Searchers
also have been trying to locate the main section of the plane's cabin,
where many of the victims' corpses are believed to be entombed.
Decomposition
is making identification more difficult for desperate families waiting
to bury their loved ones. Nearly all passengers and crew were
Indonesian.
"I still believe many victims
remain trapped there, and we must find them," said Gen. Moeldoko,
Indonesia's military chief, who uses one name.
