Divers find Lion Air jet black box
Divers recovered a flight recorder yesterday from the wreckage of a Lion Air jet in the Java Sea, a crucial discovery that may help investigators determine how a new plane fell out of clear skies in one of the worst commercial air disasters in recent years.
The bright orange flight recorder was found 30m underwater close to the coast of Jakarta.
An aeroplane has two recorders: one that captures flight data such as readings from electronic systems, and another that records the pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit.
Investigators were unclear which of the two was in hand.
The crash of Boeing’s popular 737 Max 8 has so far puzzled experts.
The twin-engine jet plunged into the sea just 13 minutes after takeoff, hitting the water with such speed and force that no victim has been found alive.
Lion Air Flight 610 took off from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport for the mining region of Pangkal Pinang early Monday. A few minutes into the flight, the pilot asked permission to return to the airport, a request that was granted.
Radar showed the aircraft climbed and descended erratically, and its speed increased dramatically before it lost contact with air traffic controllers.
Budi Karya Sumadi, Indonesia’s transportation minister, said 10 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes operated by Lion Air and one operated by Garuda, Indonesia’s national airline, have been grounded and are being inspected and evaluated by the transportation safety committee.
The committee will discuss the details of its evaluation with Boeing, he added, which has sent a team of engineers to Jakarta.
His ministry has also asked Lion Air to suspend the licences of a number of officials, including its maintenance director, engineering director and flight maintenance director, while they aid in the investigation.
Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s biggest aviation market, according to the Centre for Aviation, a travel market research company, bolstered by a rising middle class and the necessity of air travel to navigate the large archipelago. But the country has suffered from safety oversights in the past.