AirAsia crash: Flight recorder retrieved, cockpit voice recorder located
The cockpit voice recorder is stuck under heavy wreckage and divers were working to free it at a depth of 30 metres.
Workers load the wreckage of Air Asia Flight 8501 onto a truck in the port of Kumai
Divers had retrieved the flight data recorder of downed AirAsia Flight 8501 Monday and had located the cockpit voice recorder on the floor of the Java Sea, a vital breakthrough in the investigation into what caused the crash that killed all 162 people on board on 28 December.
Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, the operation coordinator at Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, announced that the voice recorder, one of the two so-called "black boxes," was located hours after the flight data recorder was brought to the surface.
He said the voice recorder was stuck under heavy wreckage and divers were working to free it at a depth of 30 metres.
Searchers had begun focusing on the site Sunday after three Indonesian ships picked up intense pings from the area, but they were unable to see it due to strong currents and poor visibility.
Search efforts have been consistently hampered by big waves and powerful currents created by the region's rainy season.
