image: Reuters
Indonesian divers have recovered the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage of AirAsia Flight QZ8501. The FDR was recovered Monday and the CVR was retrieved from underneath a wing, which had to be lifted from the seabed using airbags. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that officials were able to successfully download the data stored on the FDR. The CVR is still on a ship on its way to Jakarta where it will also be analyzed. Indonesian officials have said they will handle the analysis of the FDR data, and they are expected to issue a preliminary report within a month. The main fuselage has not yet been found, but searchers are working to verify a sonar image of interest off the coast of Borneo.
As more wreckage is located, one official said there appears to have been an explosion before the airplane hit the water, but others have disputed that theory. Supriyadi said the left side of the airplane appears to have disintegrated, and he said fishermen in the area had reported hearing an explosion and seeing smoke above the water. But Santoso Sayogo, an investigator at the National Transportation Safety Committee, told Reuters, “There is no data to support that kind of theory.” All 162 people on board died in the crash; so far 48 bodies have been recovered.
