Indonesian Navy divers have recovered a black box from a Sriwijaya Air jet that crashed into the Java Sea over the weekend with 62 people on board.
Key points:
- Thousands of rescue personnel are searching the crash area with helicopters and ships
- Police have asked the children and parents of victims to provide DNA to help with identification
- Investigators say the aircraft was intact until in crashed into the Java Sea
It was not immediately clear whether the device was the plane’s flight data or cockpit voice recorder.
The recovery was expected to help investigators determine what caused the Boeing 737-500 plane to nosedive into the ocean in heavy rain shortly after taking off from Jakarta on Saturday.
TV stations showed divers on an inflatable vessel with a large white container housing the device heading to a Jakarta port.
It will be handed over to the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), which is overseeing the crash investigation.
A navy ship earlier picked up intense pings being emitted from the two recorders.
They were buried in seabed mud under tons of sharp objects in the wreckage, navy Chief Admiral Yudo Margono said.
He said at least 160 divers were deployed on Tuesday in the search for the devices.
Recovery operation continues, police ask families for DNA
More than 3,600 rescue personnel, 13 helicopters, 54 large ships and 20 small boats are searching the area just north of Jakarta where Flight 182 crashed.
They have found parts of the plane and human remains in the water at a depth of 23 metres.
So far, the searchers have sent 74 body bags containing human remains to police identification experts who on Monday said they had identified their first victim, 29-year-old flight attendant Okky Bisma.
His wife, Aldha Refa, who is also a flight attendant for Sriwijaya Air, shared her grief in a series of posts on social media.
“My husband is a loving, devout and super kind man,” she wrote on Instagram.
“Heaven is your place, dear … be peaceful there.”
Anguished family members have been providing samples for DNA tests and police say results are expected in 4-8 days.
National Police spokesman Rusdi Hartono said about 53 samples for DNA testing have been collected but more are still needed, especially from parents and children of victims.
Mid-air breakup ruled out by investigators
Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee said the US National Transportation Safety Board will join in investigating the crash.
The NTSC chairman, Soerjanto Tjahjono, ruled out a possible mid-air breakup after seeing the condition of the wreckage found by searchers.
He said the jet was intact until it struck the water, concentrating the debris field, rather than spreading it out over a large area as would be seen with a mid-air event.
The disaster has reignited concerns about safety in Indonesia’s aviation industry, which grew fast after the economy was opened following the fall of dictator Suharto in the late 1990s.
The US had banned Indonesian carriers from operating in the country in 2007 but lifted the action in 2016 citing improvements in compliance with international aviation standards.
The European Union lifted a similar ban in 2018.
Sriwijaya Air has had only minor safety incidents in the past, though a farmer was killed in 2008 when a plane went off the runway while landing due to a hydraulic issue.
In October 2018, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet operated by Lion Air plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after taking off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
An automated flight-control system played a role in that crash, but the Sriwijaya Air jet was an older model and did not have that system on board.
ABC/AP
