Plane’s data recorder recovered
Divers found the “black box” belonging to a crashed Lion Air jet, which could provide crucial information.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Divers in Indonesia recovered the crashed Lion Air jet’s flight data recorder 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 and renewed concerns about safety in its fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and U.S. blacklists.
Lion Air, a discount carrier, is one of Indonesia's youngest and biggest airlines, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations.
The flight data recorder, or FDR, is expected to provide investigators with detailed information about the flight such as altitude, airspeed and heading.
The voice recorder also provides valuable information — not only the cockpit crew's voices but engine sounds, instrumentation warnings and other audio that investigators can interpret.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said sophisticated computer and audio equipment is used to extract and translate the data into an understandable format.
The search for the cockpit voice recorder continues, said Bambang Irawan, an investigator with the transport safety committee.