Indonesia plane crash: Navy divers retrieve black box from Java Sea

Indonesian search and rescue team has retrieved one of the two black boxes of the crashed passenger aircraft, the transportation ministry said on Tuesday. According to reports, the team recovered the flight data recorder (FDR) of the plane, while the cockpit voice recorder remains missing. The black box will help investigators establish what caused Sriwijaya Air's flight 182 to crash after it went off the radar on Saturday. 

Read: Indonesia President Confirms Boeing Plane Crashed In Java Sea

Earlier on Monday, Indonesian authorities informed that the exact location of the missing black boxes have been pinpointed and Navy divers have been sent to retrieve the recorders from the depth of the Java Sea. The operation continued throughout Monday and on Tuesday divers managed to recover one of the two black boxes from the ocean floor. Meanwhile, the search and rescue team has already recovered debris of the crashed flight from the Java Sea, which has been handed over to the National Transportation Safety Committee for investigation. 

Read: Indonesia: Authorities Locate Black Box Recorders From Crashed Boeing Plane

The crash

The Sriwijaya Air's flight 182 went off the radar on January 9 moments after the departure from the capital Jakarta. The flight, which was travelling to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province, disappeared from the radar at 2:40 pm local time, according to the country's Transportation Ministry. The aircraft reportedly lost more than 10,000 in altitude in just one minute before vanishing from the radar. Sriwijaya Air's Boeing flight was carrying 62 people, including six crew members.

Read: Indonesia: Boeing Plane Wreckage Found In Java Sea, Rescue Operations Underway

The Indonesian Transportation Ministry told the press that search and rescue operations have been launched to locate the missing aircraft. Later in the day, authorities informed that the search team has located suspected debris of Flight 182, a Boeing aircraft in operation for more than 26 years. After an hours-long operation, it was confirmed that the suspected debris belonged to the missing Sriwijaya Air's flight.

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(Image Credit: AP)