A team of divers located both of the plane’s black boxes. Indonesian navy divers retrieved one of the boxes and located another underwater on Monday.
“We succeeded in bringing up part of the black box that we call the flight data recorder,” national search and rescue chief Bambang Soelistyo told reporters in Jakarta, as quoted by Irish news website TheJournal.ie.
BREAKING: First look at the #QZ8501 black box, now at Pangkalan Bun pic.twitter.com/L7T03DR8dJ | @ChannelNewsAsia #AirAsia
— Inquirer Group (@inquirerdotnet) 12 января 2015
The black box was reportedly found under the wreckage of a wing. According to Soelistyo, divers are still trying to retrieve the second black box, which is stuck under heavy wreckage, the Guardian reports.
The initial analysis of the recovered black box indicated that the plane exploded when it hit the water.
There is another theory how the plane may have crashed. According to one Indonesian official, the plane may have exploded before hitting the water. He told Reuters that the plane exploded before hitting the water. However, Indonesia’s transport safety investigator has said there is no data available to confirm this theory yet, RT reports.
The black box will be taken to Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, for further analysis. It could take a couple of weeks before investigators manage to download all the data from the recovered black box, the Independent reports.
First black box from AirAsia Flight 8501 on its way to Jakarta; to be downloaded tonight or Tuesday morning #QZ8501
— Ben Otto (@benottoWSJ) 12 января 2015
AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crashed on December 28, on its way from Indonesia to Singapore. All 162 people on board were killed. The plane lost contact with air traffic control less than halfway into its scheduled two-hour flight.
More details to follow.
