|
 Indonesia AirAsia's Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic
control in bad weather on Dec. 28, less than halfway into a two-hour
flight from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to
Singapore.
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.
"Today we have completed searching for the main things that we have
been looking for," Rear Admiral Widodo, the commander of the navy's
western fleet, told reporters after handing over the cockpit voice
recorder to investigators.
"But the team will still try to find the body of the plane in case
there are still bodies inside."
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 is expected to be sent to the capital,
Jakarta, for analysis.
Investigators may need up to a month to get a complete reading of
the data.
CALMER WEATHER
The AirAsia group's first fatal accident took place more than two
weeks ago, but wind, high waves and strong currents have slowed
efforts to recover bodies and wreckage from the shallow waters off
Borneo island.
Dozens of Indonesian navy divers took advantage of calmer weather
this week to retrieve the black boxes and now hope to find the
fuselage of the Airbus.
Forty-eight bodies have been plucked from the Java Sea and brought
to Surabaya for identification. Searchers believe more bodies will
be found in the plane's fuselage.
[to top of second column] |
Government officials sought to reassure victims' families that
divers would continue to search for bodies.
"Our main task is to find the victims," Fransiskus Bambang
Soelistyo, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, told
reporters in Jakarta before heading to Surabaya to meet families of
the victims.
"Even if both (black boxes) are found, it doesn't mean that our
operation is over."
Relatives of the victims urged authorities to continue to search for
the remains of their loved ones.
"Even if the search has to last for a month, we are still hoping to
find them," said Lioni, who lost four family members in the plane
crash. "If they can find even one (of my family members), we would
feel a little bit relieved."
(Additional reporting by Fergus Jensen and Eveline Danubrata in
JAKARTA, Kanupriya Kapoor in PANGKALAN BUN, and Fransiska Nangoy in
SURABAYA; Writing by Randy Fabi; Editing by Alex Richardson)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
