Divers recover jet's flight recorder
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Divers on Thursday recovered a flight recorder from the crashed Lion Air jet on the seafloor, a crucial development in the investigation into what caused the 2-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 1st Sgt. Hendra, who uses a single name, in a television interview. After narrowing the possible location, "I started digging and cleaning the debris until I finally found an orange object," he said, standing on the deck of a ship next to his diving mate.
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crashed early Monday just minutes after takeoff from the Indonesian 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 European Union and U.S. blacklists.
Navy Col. Monang Sitompul told local TV that was is believed to be the aircraft's fuselage was also seen on the seafloor.
The device will be examined by the National Transportation Safety Committee, said search and rescue agency head Muhammad Syaugi. It's still to be determined if it's the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder, he said.
Syaugi said the location of the find was about 500 meters (yards) northwest of the coordinates where the plane lost contact.