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Voice and data recorders recovered from crashed AirAsia flight

Salvage experts have recovered the flight data recorder and black box cockpit voice recorder from...
Newstalk
Newstalk

07.21 13 Jan 2015


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Voice and data recorders recov...

Voice and data recorders recovered from crashed AirAsia flight

Newstalk
Newstalk

07.21 13 Jan 2015


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Salvage experts have recovered the flight data recorder and black box cockpit voice recorder from the AirAsia jet which crashed into the Java Sea with 162 people on board.

A team of navy divers recovered the flight data recorder from the plane's wreckage on Monday, after a fortnight-long search which has been hindered by bad weather.

The same team retrieved the voice recorder - which records conversations between the pilots and air traffic controllers - was recovered close to the other discovery on Tuesday.

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That device is on board an Indonesian navy vessel and will be analysed in Jakarta.

The flight recorder monitors data such as airspeed and the aircraft's heading, while the cockpit voice recorder stores radio transmissions and sounds from within the cockpit.

It comes after experts claimed the aircraft is likely to have exploded before it hit the sea.

S.B. Supriyadi, a director with the Indonesian national search and rescue agency, said wreckage analysis suggested it had broken apart because the cabin could not adapt to pressure charge caused by the steep descent.

"The cabin was pressurised and before the pressure of the cabin could be adjusted, it went down - boom. That explosion was heard in the area," said Mr Supriyadi.

However, the exact sequence of events is still unconfirmed and an Indonesian transport safety investigator said he disagreed.

"There is no data to support that kind of theory," said Santoso Sayogo, an investigator at the National Transportation Safety Committee.

AirAsia flight 8501 came down on route from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore a fortnight ago with the loss of all passengers and crew.

Man found with baby carrier

Forty eight bodies have been recovered so far, but the weather has hampered efforts to locate all the victims and the wreckage.

Three more bodies were found on Friday on the seabed, still strapped in their seats.

Two were South Korean nationals travelling with a baby. Their baby has not yet been found, but the infant's carrier was still attached to the man when he was discovered.

Supriyadi said many bodies were believed to be trapped in the cabin and that reaching that part of the wreckage was taking priority.

While the cause of the crash is still unknown, the disaster has once again placed Indonesia's chaotic aviation industry under scrutiny.

Indonesian officials have alleged Indonesia AirAsia did not have a licence to fly the route on the day of the crash, although the airline has rejected the claim.

Indonesia's transport ministry has banned AirAsia from flying the Surabaya-Singapore route and on Friday it suspended dozens more routes operated by five other domestic airlines for similar alleged licence violations.


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