AirAsia crash makes stronger case for using ‘ejectable, floating’ black boxes

Sources say a long-delayed proposal to outfit commercial airplanes with ejectable “black box” recorders may have a better chance of being adopted after the crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501, as Indonesian rescuers struggled to find the crucial recorders from a piece of wreckage on Thursday.

National Search and Rescue Agency Chief Vice Marshal Bambang Soelistyo said divers began searching the downed plane’s tail section, which should contain the black boxes.

But conditions that have hampered the entire search in the past 12 days – poor visibility, strong sea currents and rain – again forced the divers to suspend the search for the flight data and cockpit voice recorders.

The tail, sitting on the seabed at a depth of around 30 metres, was discovered on Wednesday near where the Airbus 320-200 carrying 162 passengers and crew disappeared off radar on December 28 en route to Singapore from Surabaya.

READ MORE: First pictures of AirAsia wreckage taken after tail is found on seabed

The pilots wanted to avoid bad weather but weren’t given permission to fly higher in time due to traffic in the airspace.