Divers recover jet flight recorder from seafloor
Relatives bury first victim to be identified of the 189 people killed
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Divers in Indonesia recovered one of the crashed Lion Air jet’s flight recorders from the seafloor Thursday, a crucial development in the investigation into what caused the 2-month-old plane to plunge into the ocean earlier this week, killing 189 people. Relatives, meanwhile, buried the first victim to be identified and prayed at her flower-covered grave.
TV 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.
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.
Navy Col. Monang Sitompul told local TV an object believed to be part of the aircraft’s fuselage was also seen on the seafloor.
Ony Soeryo Wibowo, an investigator with the transport safety committee, said they still haven’t determined if it’s the flight data or cockpit voice recorder. It was displayed inside a clear container submerged in water to prevent damage from rapidly drying out.
“Their forms are similar,” he said. Speaking about the overall investigation’s progress, Wibowo said, “We have collected data and did find some problems, but it must be investigated further.”
The recorder was recovered from a depth of about 98 feet, some 1,640 feet from where the plane lost contact, said search and rescue agency head Muhammad Syaugi.
“The currents below the sea are still strong, which makes it difficult for divers, but they persistently faced it,” he said.
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigators including from Boeing visited the Jakarta port on Thursday and picked through debris collected from the sea.
Data from flight-tracking sites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude in the early minutes of a flight on Sunday and on its fatal flight Monday. Safety experts caution, however, that the data must be checked for accuracy against the flight data recorder.
Several passengers on the Sunday flight from Bali to Jakarta have recounted problems that included a long-delayed takeoff for an engine check and terrifying descents in the first 10 minutes in the air.