Investigators Detect Pings from AirAsia Black Boxes


Indonesian authorities say they have pinpointed the location of the missing flight and data recorders from downed AirAsia Flight 8501.

Maritime officials said the black boxes are believed to be lodged between pieces of wreckage, making it difficult to retrieve them.

"We have detected a signal at one location where we believe it is a signal from the black box. We have checked the site twice using the pinger locator that we have on ship Baruna Jaya," said Muhammad Ilyas, head of Marine Survey Technology at Indonesia Technology Agency.

"Initially we wanted to lower the ROV [underwater device] but were not allowed by the Search and Rescue agency because it was feared it would cause damage in the area, so the search team decided to send divers to search [for the black box]," Ilyas said.

No recorders in tail section

The tail was brought to the sea's surface on Saturday using floatation devices, but Indonesian investigators did not find the black box recorders inside. 

On Sunday, the tail section was brought by tugboat to a port near the search headquarters, at Pangkalan Bun town on Borneo Island.

The recovery of the black boxes is key to learning why the plane crashed on December 28, killing all 162 people on board.

Searchers first detected ping signals from the black boxes of Flight 8501 on Friday, but officials said the boxes seemed to be separated from the tail section.

Search teams working off the coast from the West Kalimantan town of Pangkalan Bun have sought the wreckage in water up to 30 meters deep, but are facing very low visibility due to large amounts of silt stirred up by strong currents.

Divers hope calmer waters Monday will let them find and retrieve the black boxes and fuselage.
 
So far just 48 bodies have been found and 24 positively identified by forensic scientists in Surabaya.

The bodies of a South Korean couple were identified on Sunday, but their 11-month-old baby remains unaccounted for, Indonesian authorities said.

Budiyono, who heads East Java's Disaster Victim Identification unit and, like many Indonesians, uses only one name, said the couple 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, Budiyono said.

Searching for clues

Hugh Ritchie, chief executive of Sydney-based Aviation Consultants International, said recovery of the plane’s airframe and black boxes would provide the vital clues for the cause of the accident.
 
“In terms of the airframe - yes, they’ve got to see what’s occurred, they’ve got to try and find out what’s happened to the aircraft. It will tell you how the aircraft hit the water. [But the more] time that is left in the water the more it degrades. They’ve got to find out exactly what’s happened,” Ritchie said.
 
Investigators said if the flight recorders were largely undamaged they would be taken to Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta for the data to be downloaded. An initial report into the crash could then take several weeks, with a formal report expected to take up to one year.
 
Initial investigations by Indonesia’s meteorological department said a heavy monsoon storm was the key factor in the crash.
 
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has said the accident exposed “widespread” problems in the management of the air transportation sector in Indonesia.
 
Regional aviation sector under review

The Indonesian Transport Ministry has already launched an audit of the aviation sector and an investigation into AirAsia’s operations on the Surabaya-to-Singapore route.
 
Asia’s fast-growing aviation sector has come under the spotlight over the past year with the disappearance in March 2014 of Malaysian Airlines MH370 with 239 passengers and crew. Despite intense efforts off the west coast of Australia, that aircraft’s wreckage has still not been located.

In July, Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, carrying 298 passengers and crew, was shot down over eastern Ukraine.


SOURCE: VOA News