Divers retrieve 1 of 2 black boxes from crashed AirAsia 8501

An aerial photo shows a tail section of the AirAsia flight QZ8501 on the deck of a Crest Onyx ship as the search for black boxes of the aircraft continues.

JAKARTA/PANGKALAN BUN: A team of Indonesian navy divers on Monday retrieved one of the two black boxes from an AirAsia airliner that crashed in the Java Sea a fortnight ago with 162 people aboard, the transport ministry said.

"Divers will attempt to recover the black boxes by gradually shifting these layers of debris from the plane's body," Supriyadi said as Monday's search began, "Hopefully, weather and sea currents are friendly today, so our drivers can retrieve this very important instrument." The recorders were at a depth of 30-32 metres, he said in a statement

"At 7:11, we succeeded in lifting the part of the black box known as the flight data recorder," Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters at a news conference. "We are still trying to find the cockpit voice recorder."

 Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather on December 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore. 

A day earlier, search coordinator Tonny Budiono said the searchers had "succeeded in finding a very important instrument, the black box of AirAsia QZ8501.''

At least one Indonesian official counseled caution, saying it was too soon to say with certainty the pings were from the black boxes.

"There are signals, or pings, which are suspected to be of the black boxes," said Henry Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia's search and rescue agency.

AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes earlier tweeted: "We are led to believe Blackbox may have been found. Still not confirmed. But strong info coming. But my man thoughts is fuselage."

The Commission for Transportation Safety stopped a remote-operated vehicle from being deployed to probe the area where the pings were heard, fearing it might damage the boxes, said Muhammad Ilyas, head of oceanic surveys at Indonesia's technology agency. The sites will only be examined by divers, he said.

The search has been bogged down by days of heavy rains, high winds and perilous seas. Even in good weather, divers have had to deal with visibility of as little as three feet.

On Sunday, relatively clear skies and calm seas allowed more extensive search efforts. Sonar detected a large object near the pings, and officials initially were hopeful it was the main section of the Airbus A320's cabin. Soelistyo later said divers had confirmed it was a wing and debris from the engine.

On Saturday, the successfully lifted tail of the plane was taken to Pangkalan Bun, the nearest town, to be handed over to Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee for investigation, the airline said in a statement.

Authorities had hoped the black boxes would be attached to the tail, but apparently they became separated during the crash. Their beacons emit signals for about 30 days until the batteries die, meaning divers have about two weeks left before they go silent.

Some 48 bodies have been recovered so far, the National Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement Sunday. AirAsia said 32 of the remains have been identified.

Indonesian transport ministry has said AirAsia did not have a license to fly the route on the day of the crash, a claim AirAsia has vigorously disputed. 

The airline has been banned from flying the Surabaya-Singapore route. The transport ministry has suspended scores of routes from other domestic airlines for similar alleged violations.

Indonesia AirAsia, 49 percent owned by the Malaysia-based AirAsia budget group, has come under pressure from authorities in Jakarta since the crash. President Joko Widodo said the crash exposed widespread problems in the management of air travel in Indonesia. - Reuters