Black boxes not found in plane’s tail
PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia – A tail section from the crashed AirAsia plane became the first major wreckage lifted off the seabed Saturday, but the all-important black boxes were not found inside two weeks after Flight 8501 went down, killing all 162 people on board.
The red metal chunk, with the words “AirAsia” clearly visible across it, was brought to the sea’s surface using inflatable balloons. The cockpit voice and flight data recorders, located in the plane’s rear, must have detached when the Airbus A320 plummeted into the sea Dec. 28, said Indonesian military commander Gen. Moeldoko. Their recovery is essential to finding out why it crashed.
However, Moeldoko, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said pings believed to be coming from the black boxes were detected Saturday. The boxes’ beacons emit signals for about 30 days until the batteries die, meaning divers have about two weeks left to find them.
“I am fully confident that the black boxes are still not far from the tail,” Moeldoko said.
The debris was brought up from a depth of about 100 feet and towed to a ship, where it was hoisted onto the deck. The vertical stabilizer was still largely intact, but the attached jagged fuselage was ripped open and tangled by a mess of wires.
The discovery of the tail on the ocean floor earlier in the week was a major breakthrough in the slow-moving search, which has been hampered by seasonal rains, choppy seas and blinding silt from river runoff.
But Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, operation director of Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, said Saturday that he was still focused on finding the main section of fuselage, where most of the bodies are believed to be entombed.
Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan cracked down on five airlines Friday, temporarily suspending 61 flights because they were flying routes on days without permits.
Jonan also sanctioned nine more officials for allowing the AirAsia plane to fly without permits, bringing the total to 16.