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Indonesian plane crash site found

INDONESIAN authorities have determined the site where a plane with 62 people on board crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take- off. National Search and Rescue Agency head Bagus Puruhito said officials believe they have located the Boeing 737- 500’ s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder – the so- called black boxes – because emergency signals transmitted by the devices were detected by a navy ship’s sonar system.

“We have determined the position of the plane’s black boxes from two signals emitted by the devices,” military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said. “Hopefully we can lift the black boxes in short time to determine the cause of the crash.”

Earlier search and rescue operations resulted in parts of the plane being found in the sea leading rescuers to continue searching the area.

“We received reports from the diver team that the visibility in the water is good and clear, allowing the discovery of some parts of the plane,” Tjahjanto said. “We are sure that is the point where the plane crashed.”

He said objects found included broken pieces of fuselage with aircraft registration parts.

Earlier, rescuers retrieved body parts, pieces of children’s clothing and scraps of metal from the surface. The breakthrough in the search for Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 came after the navy ship’s sonar equipment detected a signal from the aircraft at a location that fitted with the co- ordinates from the last contact made by the pilots before the plane disappeared on Saturday afternoon, Tjahjanto said.

The cause of the crash is still unclear and there has been no sign of survivors.