Russian Team Searches for Black Boxes From Crashed AirAsia Plane

MOSCOW, January 3 (Sputnik) — The main task of the Russian team assisting in the search of AirAsia flight QZ8501 in the Java Sea is to locate the plane's flight recorders, the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s chief military expert said Saturday.

“Our main task is to detect the location of the black boxes and recover them from the sea,” Eduard Chizhikov was quoted as saying by the Indonesian DetikCom news website.

A Russian team of more than 70 divers and search experts arrived in Jakarta on Friday and joined the search mission on Saturday after a request from Indonesian authorities.

According to the military expert, the two Russian planes used in the search, an Il-76 airlifter and a Be-200 amphibious aircraft, are both equipped with the necessary technologies to search for underwater objects.

The Russian team also brought along other high-tech search equipment, including the remote-controlled Folkon deepwater vehicle, designed to operate at depths of up to 1,000 meters (3280 feet).

Earlier on Saturday, Russian Deputy Emergencies Minister Vladimir Stepanov stated that Russia's search team could be expanded to include more than 160 people if necessary.

AirAsia's Airbus A320-200, carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members, crashed into the Java Sea on December 28. A multinational team of specialists is currently taking part in the search operation at the suspected crash site, having recovered 30 bodies so far.