AirAsia cockpit voice recorder located: official

(Xinhua) Updated: 2015-01-12 14:42

The tail of AirAsia QZ8501 passenger plane is seen on the deck of the Indonesian Search and Rescue (BASARNAS) ship Crest Onyx after it was lifted from the sea bed, south of Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan January 10, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

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JAKARTA - Indonesian divers have retrieved the flight data recorder of the crashed AirAsia Flight QZ8501 in the Java Sea, the chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency ( BASARNAS) said on Monday.

"The flight data recorder has been evacuated," BASARNAS head Bambang Soelistyo told a press conference at the agency's headquarters, adding that the black box was discovered under the wing of the ill-fated Airbus 320-200.

Divers were conducting further search for another black box, the cockpit voice recorder, he said.

Search ships have detected big objects believed to be the fuselage of the plane in the crash site off Indonesia's Central Kalimantan.

Divers would recover more bodies of passengers possibly trapped inside the aircraft's body, Soelistyo added.

On Sunday night, the marine transport directorate general at the Transport Ministry said one of the two black boxes was found wedged between pieces of the plane's wreckage, but divers failed to retrieve it.

The flight data and cockpit voice recorders, known as black boxes, are crucial to helping determine the cause of the air crash. Initial investigations suggested that bad weather was a contributing factor.

Flight QZ8501, with 162 people aboard, went down in the Java Sea near the Karimata Strait en route from Surabaya to Singapore on Dec 28.

A multinational search operation has been underway to lift up wreckage and bodies of the victims, joined by ships and planes from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, Japan, Australia, Russia, South Korea and China. But strong winds, currents and high waves have hampered the search efforts.

A total of 48 bodies of the victims have been recovered from the sea, with 27 of them having been identified, since debris and bodies from the crashed plane were spotted on Dec 30.