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The AirAsia Flight 8501 Data Recorder Has Been Retrieved

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INDONESIA-SINGAPORE-MALAYSIA-AVIATION-AIRASIA
Indonesian crew of the Crest Onyx ship prepare to hoist recovered wreckage of AirAsia flight QZ8501 at port in Kumai on January 11, 2015. Indonesian divers on January 11 found the crucial black box flight recorder of the AirAsia plane that crashed in the Java Sea a fortnight ago with 162 people aboard, the transport ministry said.Adek Berry—AFP/Getty Images
By TIME Staff
Updated: | Originally published: ;

One of two data recorders belonging to the AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea on Dec. 28 has been brought to the surface, according to Indonesia’s top search and rescue official.

F.H. Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), told reporters in Jakarta that “we succeeded in bringing up part of the black box that we call the flight data recorder,” the BBC reports.

He said recovery had been made at 7:11 a.m. local time.

Divers have meanwhile also found the cockpit voice recorder, but are unable to retrieve it because it is buried under heavy wreckage, the Associated Press reports.

Investigators hope that the evidence contained in both devices will help explain why the Airbus A320-200 went down with 162 lives lost as it flew from Indonesia’s second city, Surabaya, to Singapore.

[BBC]

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