AirAsia black box 'pings' detected

An investigator at the National Transportation Safety Committee of Indonesia has told international news agencies that search and rescue teams hunting for the wreck of an AirAsia passenger jet have detected “pings” emitted from the aircraft’s black box recorders.

The aircraft, Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 disappeared from radar screens on December 28 less than half way into its flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

There were no survivors from the 162 passengers on board.

The tail section of the aircraft had been located on the sea bed on Wednesday, at a depth of 30m and in a position roughly 30km from the aircraft’s last reported location.

An operation to bring the tail section to the surface, using lifting balloons, is scheduled to take place today.