A flight data recorder retrieved Tuesday by Indonesian authorities is the best chance of identifying the circumstances that led to a Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737 plunging into the sea shortly after take-off on Saturday.
An Indonesian navy diver stand on a rubber boat holds a rope during the search and rescue operation for the Sriwijaya Air flight SJ 182, at the sea off the Jakarta coast, Indonesia, January 12, 2021.
The 26-year-old jet had been out of service for nearly nine months because of flight cutbacks caused by the coronavirus pandemic, officials said.
Divers are still yet to recover the second cockpit voice recorder, but military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said he was confident it would be recovered soon.
A navy ship earlier picked up intense pings being emitted from the two recorders.
Meanwhile, per Reuters, Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) surmised that the plane possibly "ruptured" when it hit the Java Sea, as the debris was not scattered widely, unlike in the case of a mid-air explosion.
"The search continues today and we're hoping for a good result", Rasman MS, head of the search and rescue agency's crash operations, told reporters. "Until we meet again darling", Okky's wife, who is also a flight attendant, wrote on her Instagram account.
"My super kind husband". "Heaven is your place, dear.be peaceful there".
The jet that crashed on Saturday is a largely different design.
Indonesia's transport ministry on Tuesday said the aircraft had been grounded during the pandemic, and passed an inspection on 14 December. "This is consistent with the hypothesis that the plane's system was still working at 250 feet altitude", Soerjanto said. The effort has so far retrieved multiple human body parts and one crash victim has been identified.
A team from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will be traveling to Jakarta in coming days to help with the investigation.
The disaster has reignited concerns about safety in the aviation industry, which grew quickly after the economy was opened following the fall of dictator Suharto in the late 1990s. Safety concerns led the United States and European Union to ban Indonesian carriers for years, both since lifted due to better compliance with global aviation standards. The United States banned Indonesian carriers from operating in the country in 2007, lifting the action in 2016, citing improvements in compliance with worldwide aviation standards.
Sriwijaya Air, which flies to destinations in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia, has had safety incidents including runway overruns. In October 2018, a B-737 MAX 8 operated by low-priced carrier Lion Air crashed off the northeast coast of Jakarta immediately after takeoff, killing all 189 passengers and crew.
Divers looking for a crashed plane's cockpit voice recorder were searching in mud and plane debris on the seabed between Indonesian islands Wednesday to retrieve information key to learning why the Sriwijaya Air jet nosedived into the water over the weekend.
