Indonesian authorities are assessing how they can retrieve from water up to 2,000m (6,550ft) deep the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) from the Adam Air Boeing 737-400 that crashed on 1 January.

The country's National Transportation Safety Commission investigator Frans Wenas confirms that the US Navy's USNS Mary Sears located both the CVR and FDR on the seabed off the western coast of the island of Sulawesi this week. He says one recorder is at a depth of 1,800m and the other is at 2,000m.

"We are working to try to recover them. We need a remotely operated [vehicle] - like a robot - but we don't have those in Indonesia," he says.

"There are negotiations at the present time" to bring one to Indonesia, adds Wenas, who was due to visit the area late last week. "We are in contact with the US ambassador over this for help."

The US Embassy in Jakarta says that the USNS Mary Sears oceanographic survey ship "detected pingers on the same frequency of the black boxes associated with the missing airplane".

It adds that "in subsequent sweeping of the ocean floor around the pinger location, the Mary Sears detected heavy debris scattered over a wide area and is currently analysing that debris to verify if it is from the missing aircraft".

The Mary Sears, which is equipped with side scan sonar and satellite imagery capabilities, has left Indonesian waters having "completed its mission of locating the black boxes and informing the Indonesian Government of their location", adds the Embassy.

Wenas says the recorders are located "less than one mile apart" in waters between the cities of Majene and Parepare. "Most of the debris was found between these towns. There is kind of a bay there," he adds.

The Adam Air 737-400, carrying 102 passengers and crew, went missing on 1 January while on a flight between Surabaya and Manado. The first pieces of wreckage were only found 10 days after the aircraft went missing and, to date, the largest piece of debris recovered is part of the horizontal stabiliser. No bodies have been recovered.

"We have 194 pieces that have been confirmed as being from the aircraft," says Wenas. "These are mostly light pieces, things like parts of seats and serving tables."




Source: Flight International