have lifted the tail portion out of the Java Sea, two weeks after it
went down, killing all 162 people on board.
It was not immediately clear if the cockpit voice and flight data
recorders were still inside the tail or have been detached when the
Airbus A320 plummeted into the sea on December 28. Their recovery is
essential to finding out why it crashed.
The tail was hoisted on Saturday from a depth of about 30 metres using
inflatable bags that were attached to the rear of the aircraft and a
crane to lift it onto a rescue ship.
Intermittent underwater ping-like sounds were picked up on Friday
about a kilometre from where the tail was located, but it was unclear
if they were coming from the recorders located in the back of the
aircraft. It was possible the signals were coming from another source.
No metal was detected at the ping location, and Nurcahyo Utomo, a
National Commission for Transportation Safety investigator, said the
sounds could not be confirmed.
The discovery of the tail on the ocean floor earlier this week was a
major breakthrough in the slow-moving search that has been hampered by
seasonal rains, choppy seas and blinding silt from river runoff.
Officials were hopeful the black boxes were still inside.
--BBC
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