AirAsia: Clues investigators get from cockpit voice and flight data recorders

An AirAsia jet which crashed with 162 people on board is likely to have exploded before it hit the sea, according to salvage experts - but other investigators have disputed the claim. S.B. Supriyadi, a director with the Indonesian national search and rescue agency, said wreckage analysis suggested it had broken apart because the cabin could not adapt to pressure charge caused by the steep descent. However, the exact sequence of events is still unconfirmed and an Indonesian transport safety investigator has said he disagrees.

The cabin was pressurised and before the pressure of the cabin could be adjusted, it went down - boom. That explosion was heard in the area.

S.B. Supriyadi, director with the Indonesian national search & rescue agency

"There is no data to support that kind of theory," said Santoso Sayogo, an investigator at the National Transportation Safety Committee, on Monday morning. The flight data recorder captures 25 hours’ worth of information on the position and condition of almost every major part in a plane, including data such as airspeed and the aircraft’s heading, while the cockpit voice recorder, which has yet to be recovered, stores radio transmissions and sounds from within the cockpit.

Asia-Pacific