Indonesia's search operation chief denies claim on finding of AirAsia blackbox amid mixed report

Chief of Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Bambang Soelistyo denied on Sunday information on the finding of the crashed AirAsia plane's black box in the search operation conducted during the day.

"Blackbox has not been found. What we obtained are only ping signals from the alleged blackbox," Soelistyo told a press conference held in his office in the afternoon.

Soelistyo also said that a new ping signal was detected by Indonesian survey ship Baruna Jaya I, which is located 1.9 nautical miles from the initial location of the tail part.

In close proximity to the source of ping signal, he said that search team had detected objects that he described as 'wing and engine parts' of the doomed plane.

It is confirmed that the signal is there, but it is not yet confirmed that it is from the black box, he said.

Answering Xinhua regarding the finding, Soelistyo said "if there is no official report or proof to Indonesian National Search and Rescue Operation, then the black box is still considered missing."

Three Indonesian ships have detected the coordinate of the ping signals of presumably the blackbox of the plane. This finding was followed up by attempts to recover it by deploying divers to the identified location.

However, divers failed to locate the sources of the ping signals there, BASARNAS Operation Director Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi told Xinhua.

Prior to the press conference, a press release by Indonesia's Transport Ministry said that the blackbox of the plane was believed to be located at 03:37:21 South and 109:42:42 East and wedged between pieces of wreckage.

The search crew will attempt to retrieve it by moving parts of wreckage to loosen it from where it is currently stuck. If it fails, the team will then lift part of the fuselage using the balloon technique which was used in lifting up the tail part, said the Transport Ministry statement.

In yet another new development that adds to the media confusion, an official of Russian team taking part in the search operation confirmed on the finding of the blackbox, saying that its whereabouts is around the Karimata Strait.

He, however said that the blackbox was yet to be able to be lifted up to surface.

"The blackbox has already found. But according to information that I received, it cannot be lifted up yet," the military expert at Russia's State of Emergency Ministry Edward Chizikov told a press conference in East Jakarta air forces base of Halim Perdanakusumah on Sunday.

With the finding of the blackbox, Edward declared that Russia mission in the operation to evacuate debris and bodies of from the crashed AirAsia plane has finished. Endi