Indonesian official confirms recovery of cockpit voice recorder from crashed AirAsia flight

A senior official from the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) told Xinhua on Tuesday that the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from the crashed AirAsia flight has been recovered.

BASARNAS operation director SB Supriyadi said it was retrieved from the wreckage of the crashed flight and would be flown to Jakarta later in the day. "The CVR device was managed to be recovered, Its location was 20 meters apart from the flight data recorder. Now the CVR was kept on Banda Aceh navy ship,"Supriyadi told Xinhua by phone from the operation base in Indonesia's Borneo city of Pangkalan Bun.

Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) Chairman Tatang Kurniadi has received the CVR recovered by divers from Indonesian navy onboard Banda Aceh ship, he added. The CVR would eventually be transported to KNKT office in Jakarta from Pangkalan Bun.

The CVR is believed to have the recording of conversations between the pilot and his co-pilot seconds before the crash took place.

The crash happened about 42 minutes after flight QZ5801 took off. The flight was heading to Singapore from Indonesia's second largest city of Surabaya.on Dec. 28.

The voice recording in CVR might also prove the report issued by the Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency ( BMKG) shortly after the crash that flight QZ8501 may have encountered comulonimbus storm.

According to BMKG's report, the plane may have suffered from power loss in its engines due to extreme icing process when it entered the storm cloud, leading to its downing.

Indonesian divers recovered the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) of the plane on Monday. It was transported to KNKT office in Jakarta later in the day.

KNKT Chairman Tatang Kurniadi said in Pangkalan Bun Monday that the opening and extraction of data from the device would be conducted in front of witnesses representing countries whose nationals were killed in the crash.

KNKT has sufficient technology and equipment to carry out the investigation into the crash of the plane, KNKT head of Air Transport Accident Investigator Masruri told Xinhua on Monday.

Indonesia, however, will need experts from France as the plane was produced by Airbus, a French plane maker firm.

KNKT head of investigators Mardjono Siswo Sumarno said in Jakarta on Monday evening that the downloading of FDR data may take up to 3 days with results of the investigation being come out at least in one year.

The multinational search and rescue operation by Indonesia, the United States, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, Japan, South Korea and China has recovered at least 48 bodies from the sea, with 34 of them being identified.

The international teams have also recovered some debris from the flight operated by Malaysia-based airline firm AirAsia.

More bodies of the plane passengers are believed to remain trapped in the plane's wreckage already detected by the Indonesia search team.

BASARNAS Chairman FHB Soelistyo said on Sunday that search teams had detected 14 objects suspected of body parts of the plane.

Indonesia managed to lift the tail part of the plane on Saturday.

Retrieving the remaining bodies of the passengers from the wreckage is one of the priorities assigned to Indonesian navy divers taking part in the mission.

Soelistyo said that the international operation to search for debris and bodies from flight QZ8501 would be terminated within the next 3 to 4 days.

The further operation to recover wreckage and bodies from the perished plane will be carried out by Indonesia, he said. Endite