Update | Divers retrieve cockpit voice recorder from crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501
Indonesian navy divers searching for the remaining debris from the lost AirAsia flight find cockpit voice recorder after earlier recovering the black box data recorders
Divers retrieved the cockpit voice recorder from the wreck of the crashed AirAsia passenger jet on Tuesday, an Indonesian investigator said, in a key step towards determining the cause of the crash that killed 162 people.
Indonesia AirAsia’s flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather on December 28, less than half way into a two-hour flight from Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors.
The cockpit voice recorder, which retains the last two hours of conversation between the pilots and with air traffic controllers, was found close to where the flight data recorder was recovered from the bottom of the Java Sea on Monday.
When asked if the so-called black box was found, Santoso Sayogo, an investigator at the National Transportation Safety Committee, told reporters: “We can confirm”.
Together the black boxes, which are actually orange, contain a wealth of data that will be crucial for investigators piecing together the sequence of events that led to the Airbus A320-200 plunging into the sea.
The cockpit voice recorder was on board an Indonesian navy vessel and expected to be sent to the capital, Jakarta, for analysis, MetroTV said, quoting a transport official.
