JAKARTA: — The Jakarta Globe reported, citing a transport ministry official, that Indonesian divers on Sunday found the black box of the AirAsia plane which crashed in the Java Sea a fortnight ago with 162 people aboard, but they failed to retrieve it because it was stuck under debris from the main body of the plane.
“The navy divers in Jadayat state boat have succeeded in finding a very important instrument, the black box of AirAsia QZ8501,” said Tonny Budiono, a senior official of the Transport Ministry.
Tonny said the black box’s coordinates were 03.37.21 South/109.42.42 East at a depth of 30 to 32 meters. Divers will attempt to recover the flight data recorder tomorrow.
“Because of time constraints, [we] have decided to retrieve the black boxes tomorrow (Monday) morning by gradually shifting these layers of aircraft body debris,” Tonny said.
But if that fails, Tonny said divers would lift the debris using inflatable balloons, the same technique used to lift the tail section on Saturday.
However, Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir denied that the black box had been found, saying divers could not confirm its exact location due to poor weather and visibility.
Earlier on Sunday three search vessels detected pings about five kilometers from where the tail of the Airbus A320-200 aircraft was raised on Saturday.