The flight recorder from the downed Adam Air flight, has been detected on the ocean floor. A US Navy ship located a signal from the recorder, plus indications of debris on the ocean floor. So far no one has been able to retrieve the flight recorder due to the depth of the ocean (1,700m). Here’s more from the Jakarta Post.
RI plans to retrieve flight data recorder from crashed jetliner
JAKARTA (AP): Indonesia will attempt to retrieve the flight data recorder from a jetliner that crashed into the sea with 102 people on board – a difficult and expensive operation given ocean depths of more than 1,700 meters (one mile) but key to determining the accident’s cause, an investigator said Friday.
A U.S. Navy vessel picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders, also known as black boxes, in waters off Sulawesi island, and has informed Indonesian officials of their location, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said Thursday.
“The government and U.S. officials have met to determine how to recover the black boxes from the bottom of the sea,” said Setyo Raharjo, head of the National Commission on Transportation Safety.
He said Indonesia did not have the seabed salvage technology to retrieve the boxes, which the transport minister said were ata depth of more that 1,700 meters (more than a mile) and close tothe last known position of the plane.
Small, unmanned submarines controlled by remote control have been used in other countries to recover the black boxes of jetliners that crashed at sea.
The Adam Air Boeing 737 went missing more than three weeks ago after reporting heavy winds off the western coast of Sulawesi while flying from Indonesia’s main island of Java.
Search teams have since found almost 200 pieces of debris – mostly small pieces of the wings, tail, cockpit and cabin – but no bodies.
The hull of the aircraft has not yet been recovered, but the embassy said the U.S. ship “detected heavy debris scattered overa wide area” close to where the signals were coming from.
The black boxes record crucial flight data such as a plane’s speed and altitude as well as the voices of the pilots.
