Black box not found in tail of AirAsia plane
Voice and data recorders may explain why Airbus crashed
JAKARTA, INDONESIA— The black-box flight recorder from the AirAsia jet that crashed into the Java Sea was not in the tail section recovered from the water Saturday.
“The signal from the suspected pinger is located around one kilometre southeast from the spot where we located the tail section,” S.B. Supriyadi, operations director at the National Search and Rescue Agency, told a news conference at Iskandar Air Force Base, Pangkalan Bun, about 1,000 kilometres southeast of Singapore, on Saturday. “We will try to get a correct fix of the co-ordinate and send divers afterwards.”
Three days ago, authorities found the tail, which houses the cockpit-voice recorder and the flight data recorder, together known as the black box.
The Indonesian navy successfully lifted the tail section of the crashed jetliner Saturday using a float bag and the parts are now being transported to Kumai Bay near Pangkalan Bun.
“We will transport it to a place where we can examine it,” First Admiral Manahan Simorangkir, a navy spokesman, said by phone. The tail was being taken by ship to Kumai Bay, he said.
Aping that may be from a black box was detected 300 metres away from the tail, Indonesian news website Detik reported Friday, citing Moeldoko. Supriyadi did not elaborate on why a ping now appears to originate from a farther location.
The recorders may explain why the Airbus A320-200 jet, with162 people on board, fell from the sky on Dec. 28 while on a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore.
So far, 48 bodies have been found, F.H. Bambang Sulistyo, head of the national search agency, told reporters in Jakarta on Friday.
The single-aisle Airbus jet, operated as QZ8501 by Malaysia-based AirAsia’s Indonesia affiliate, appears to have flown into a storm cloud, with its engines possibly affected by ice formation, researchers from the Indonesia weather office wrote in a report, citing meteorological data from the flight’s last known location over the Java Sea.
Indonesia suspended AirAsia’s flights on the route of its crashed jetliner pending an investigation. It also suspended permits on various routes affecting services of carriers including Lion Air, Wings Air, Garuda Indonesia and Susi Air after finding 61 flight violations, Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told reporters in Jakarta on Friday.
Garuda will run checks on flights deemed to be violating regulations or permits and will make necessary improvements to comply, Pujobroto, vice-president for corporate communications, said in a statement.