Indonesian navy divers recovered the flight data recorder from Sriwijaya Air Flight 182, which crashed into the Java Sea with 62 people on board shortly after takeoff on Saturday, officials said on Tuesday.
Remains of some of the victims were also brought ashore in dozens of bodies, officials said. So far, four victims have been identified. No survivors of the flight are expected to be found.
The rapid recovery of the flight data recorder, sometimes known as a ‘black box’ and one of the two in the plane, will help officials understand why the 26-year-old Boeing 737-500 crashed just four minutes after the rise of Jakarta, the capital. The plane was en route to Pontianak on the island of Borneo, a flight of about 90 minutes.
The divers retrieved the flight data recorder from the wreckage in about 75 feet of water between the small islands of Lancang and Laki, officials said.
The Boeing carried two data recorders on the opposite side of the aircraft: a flight data recorder in the tail of the aircraft, which can provide information on the mechanical operation of the aircraft during the short flight; and a voice recorder in the cockpit recording the conversation between the pilot and co-pilot.
Investigators hope that analyzing the information found on both devices can provide a clear picture of what happened during the flight.
Authorities said the plane had sunk nearly 11,000 feet shortly after takeoff from the Sukarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta and the wreckage spread over an area about 1,200 feet long and 300 feet wide.
The relatively compact size of the waste field corresponds to a plane that did not explode before it hit the water.
Each data recorder has an underwater acoustic beacon that emits a signal in the event of an accident to help searchers repair the recorders.
But in this case, the acoustic beacon lost from the voice recorder of the cabin and was found separately, said the commander of the Indonesian national army, Hadi Tjahjanto.
Divers continue to search for the recorder itself, he told reporters.
“We are sure that the voice recorder will also be found in the cabin,” he said.
Sriwijaya Air issued a statement stating that the aircraft had received a certificate of airworthiness from the Ministry of Transport of Transport which was valid until 17 December 2021.
A ministry spokeswoman Adita Irawati said the aircraft’s certificate was extended in November.
“Sriwijaya Air met the conditions,” she said.
The latest crash adds to a list of past airline tragedies in Indonesia. Air Asia Flight 8501 crashed in December 2014 in the Java Sea off the coast of Borneo. And in October 2018, Lion Air Flight dived 610 minutes after takeoff in the Java Sea northeast of Jakarta.
Dera Menra Sijabat delivered the report from Jakarta, Indonesia.