The government of Indonesia deployed an unmanned underwater vehicle to help the rescue team in search for the flight recorders, also known as “black boxes“, as well as remains of victims of the crashed Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500.
On January 12, 2021, the government of Indonesia decided to deploy a remotely operated underwater vehicle in the Java Sea in order to help the divers in search for black boxes of the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500. The unmanned underwater device helped the rescue team to scour the seabed while the Indonesian navy vessels searched the surface of the area.
The same day, the Indonesian authorities have recovered one of the aircraft’s black boxes, reported Reuters. While it was not clear whether the recovered item was the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) or the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), the recovery will help the investigators to start putting together the puzzle and find out why the 737 crashed.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian authorities have already done the first identification of the found victim, who had worked as a flight attendant for the airline.
“Today we are focusing on finding the victims,” in a statement to local media said Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for the search and rescue agency Basarnas.
Previously, the divers were able to narrow down the area of the sea where they believed the black boxes could be located. In addition, the Indonesian authorities found and recovered the aircraft’s engines on January 11, 2021.
The fatal aircraft crash happened on January 9, 2021, after a nearly 27-year-old Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500, registered as PK-CLC, took off from Jakarta Soekarno Hatta International Airport (CGK). It was traveling towards its destination at Pontianak Supadio Airport (PNK), Indonesia. Five minutes after take-off, while the aircraft was flying over near Laki Island in the Java Sea, it disappeared from radar screens. The aircraft was carrying 62 people on board.