Divers retrieve 1 of 2 black boxes from crashed AirAsia jet

[webfact]

Divers retrieve 1 of 2 black boxes from crashed AirAsia jet

PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AP) — Divers retrieved one of the black boxes Monday from the AirAsia plane that plummeted more than two weeks ago into the Java Sea, a major breakthrough in the slow-moving hunt to recover bodies and wreckage.

The flight data recorder was found under part of the plane's wing and brought to the surface early in the morning, said Henry Bambang Soelistyo, head of the national search and rescue agency.

Divers began zeroing in on the site a day earlier after three Indonesian ships picked up intense pings from the area, but they were unable to see it due to strong currents and poor visibility, said Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, operation coordinator at the national search and rescue agency.

He earlier said the black box was lodged in debris at a depth of about 30 meters (100 feet), but Soelistyo did not provide additional details on the discovery.

Searchers will continue to scour the seabed to try to locate the other black box, the cockpit voice recorder. They are vital to understanding what brought Flight 8501 down on Dec. 28, killing all 162 people on board.

The flight data recorder will be taken to Jakarta, the capital, for analysis. It could take up to two weeks to download its recorded data, said Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator at the National Committee for Safety Transportation.

Officials recovered the aircraft's tail on Saturday, the first major wreckage excavated from the crash site. They were hopeful the black boxes were still inside, but learned they had detached when the plane crashed into the sea.

Search efforts have been consistently hampered by big waves and powerful currents created by the region's rainy season. Silt and sand, along with river runoff, have created blinding conditions for divers.

So far, only 48 bodies have been recovered. Many believe most of the corpses are likely still inside the main cabin, which has yet to be located.

Three more bodies were identified Sunday, including Park Seongbeom, 37, and his wife, Lee Kyung Hwa, 34, from South Korea, said Budiyono, who heads East Java's Disaster Victim Identification unit and, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.

He said they were discovered Friday on the seabed, still strapped to their seats. Their baby has not yet been found, but the infant's carrier was still attached to the man.

The last contact the pilots had with air traffic control, about halfway into their two-hour journey from Indonesia's second-largest city, Surabaya, to Singapore, indicated they were entering stormy weather. They asked to climb from 32,000 feet (9,753 meters) to 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) to avoid threatening clouds, but were denied permission because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the plane dropped off the radar. No distress signal was sent.
___

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-01-12

[webfact]

Navy divers find AirAsia black box: Transportation Ministry



JAKARTA: -- The Jakarta Globe reported, citing a transport ministry official, that Indonesian divers on Sunday found the black box of the AirAsia plane which crashed in the Java Sea a fortnight ago with 162 people aboard, but they failed to retrieve it because it was stuck under debris from the main body of the plane.

“The navy divers in Jadayat state boat have succeeded in finding a very important instrument, the black box of AirAsia QZ8501,” said Tonny Budiono, a senior official of the Transport Ministry.

Tonny said the black box’s coordinates were 03.37.21 South/109.42.42 East at a depth of 30 to 32 meters. Divers will attempt to recover the flight data recorder tomorrow.

“Because of time constraints, [we] have decided to retrieve the black boxes tomorrow (Monday) morning by gradually shifting these layers of aircraft body debris,” Tonny said.

But if that fails, Tonny said divers would lift the debris using inflatable balloons, the same technique used to lift the tail section on Saturday.

However, Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir denied that the black box had been found, saying divers could not confirm its exact location due to poor weather and visibility.

Earlier on Sunday three search vessels detected pings about five kilometers from where the tail of the Airbus A320-200 aircraft was raised on Saturday.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/navy-divers-find-airasia-black-box-transportation-ministry


-- Thai PBS 2015-01-12

[MaxYakov]

Congratulations to all the SAR team, especially the divers. I hope the CVR is pinging.

[tartempion]

It's about time, now let's hope the silly experts who know zilch will wait official results from the boxes before posting more rubbish, thank you.

[MaxYakov]

RT Breaking News: Divers have located the CVR

http://rt.com/news/221635-airasia-black-box-lifted/

"Hours later, AP quoted officials as saying that the location of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) had also been established – 20 meters from the flight data recorder. However, the divers haven’t yet been able to free it from the plane’s wreckage."

Edited January 12, 2015 by MaxYakov

[Olieboer]

They walk among us - and more worryingly head up the Indonesian search and rescue service!

This statement beggars belief... From BBC report today about flight data recorder retreived:

Supriyadi, operations co-ordinator for Indonesia's search and rescue agency, said that based on initial analysis of the wreckage, the plane could have "exploded" upon landing on the water.

"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," he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency"

- An aircraft cabin is pressurized as air pressure drops with altitude to an equivalent of about 6-8000 feet. When this one came down through 6-8000 feet the pressure would have equalized; there is NO WAY the plane could have 'exploded' upon landing on the water!
This sort of idiot statement does nothing to help the grieving next of kin visualize the last moments of their loved ones!
What a pillock!

[Basil B]

They walk among us - and more worryingly head up the Indonesian search and rescue service!

This statement beggars belief... From BBC report today about flight data recorder retreived:

Supriyadi, operations co-ordinator for Indonesia's search and rescue agency, said that based on initial analysis of the wreckage, the plane could have "exploded" upon landing on the water.

"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," he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency"

- An aircraft cabin is pressurized as air pressure drops with altitude to an equivalent of about 6-8000 feet. When this one came down through 6-8000 feet the pressure would have equalized; there is NO WAY the plane could have 'exploded' upon landing on the water!

This sort of idiot statement does nothing to help the grieving next of kin visualize the last moments of their loved ones!

What a pillock!

OK, it imploded...

[Olieboer]

A differential pressure of 3-4 psi isn't going to make a much of an impression on a aircraft fuselage, and an implosion would hardly make any sound, either, just a slow collapse if at all... Sky News would probably love to speculate with that one, though.

[bangon04]

It's about time, now let's hope the silly experts who know zilch will wait official results from the boxes before posting more rubbish, thank you.

No need to worry. The Indonesian "authorities" will be happy to supply more than their fair share of idiotic and self-contradictory nonsense announcements on a regular basis.

It would be nice to hope that the boxes get analysed by a competent and efficient laboratory.

[Basil B]

It's about time, now let's hope the silly experts who know zilch will wait official results from the boxes before posting more rubbish, thank you.

No need to worry. The Indonesian "authorities" will be happy to supply more than their fair share of idiotic and self-contradictory nonsense announcements on a regular basis.

It would be nice to hope that the boxes get analysed by a competent and efficient laboratory.

As long as the data is not corrupted or destroyed, I presume every interested party will have their opportunity to analyse the data, but I assume the official accident report will be by the Indonesians.

[F430murci]

So now we have two different Indonesia agencies releasing conflicting reports. One said plane exploded in air due to pressurization and one said no evidence of explosion prior to entry into water. Insane!

[tonypace02]

They walk among us - and more worryingly head up the Indonesian search and rescue service!

This statement beggars belief... From BBC report today about flight data recorder retreived:

Supriyadi, operations co-ordinator for Indonesia's search and rescue agency, said that based on initial analysis of the wreckage, the plane could have "exploded" upon landing on the water.

"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," he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency"

- An aircraft cabin is pressurized as air pressure drops with altitude to an equivalent of about 6-8000 feet. When this one came down through 6-8000 feet the pressure would have equalized; there is NO WAY the plane could have 'exploded' upon landing on the water!

This sort of idiot statement does nothing to help the grieving next of kin visualize the last moments of their loved ones!

What a pillock!

I claim no expertise on the science of aerodynamics, but I had enough college physics to know that the deeper you go in the atmosphere, the higher the pressure is on the outside of a body; and if the internal pressure of that body remains constant, the change of the differential of the two pressures might cause an implosion. But it would have to be a hell of a long dive during which something on the plane like windows would collapse inward and neutralize the pressure almost instantly. So I think Olieboer is on target here.

I am reminded of a flight out of Peru where a maintenance man had moved a piece of tape over an altitude sensor while doing a routine and forgot to remove it. That particular sensor provided altitude information not only to the pilot but to ATC as well. It indicated the plane was a few thousand feet above its actual location. As they were flying over water at night, the pilots had no physical references. ATC kept ordering them to lower their altitude and they complied but there was no indication of an altitude change. Eventually they crashed into the sea killing all aboard. My understanding was that that the Indonesian plane had been recently maintained and had a few hours on it since. It will be interesting to see what the cause was.