Lion Air has reportedly ended its search for the cockpit voice recorder of its crashed Boeing 737 Max 8.
The search ended shortly before midnight on 29 December 2018, Lion Air Group told Reuters. It did not specify any reasons behind the move.
In mid-December 2018, Lion chartered a ship, MPV Everest, from a Dutch company to assist in the search. At that time, it also estimated that the search for the CVR would cost Rp38 billion ($2.62 million).
The Reuters report adds that Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) is likely to conduct its own search for the CVR, using ships from the country's navy "as soon as feasible". Negotiations with the navy are underway.
"It might be as soon as next week. It won’t be as fancy as the MPV Everest but will be equipped with a CVR detector and we already have a remote-operated vehicle," the NTSC spokesman was quoted as saying in the report.
Neither Lion nor the NTSC could be reached for comment.
The 737, registered PK-LQP, was operating flight JT610 from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International airport to Pangkal Pinang when it crashed into the sea near the town of Karawang on 29 October 2018. There were 189 on board.
The flight data recorder was recovered on 2 November, three days after the crash.
Lion reportedly got involved in the search for the CVR due to the NTSC's budgetary constraints in raising the main aircraft wreckage and to locate the recorder.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
