Pings detected in Java Sea in hunt for AirAsia #QZ8501 black boxes

Ping signals believed to be from the black box data recorders of crashed AirAsia Flight 8501 were detected Friday, a senior Indonesian search official said, offering strong hopes of explaining the disaster. The plane crashed into the Java Sea on December 28 as it flew from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, claiming the lives of all 162 people on board. Stormy weather has slowed multinational efforts to find the wreckage of the plane and determine why it crashed. The black boxes are regarded as crucial to explaining the cause of the disaster, as they should contain recordings of the pilots’ final words and general flight data.

The location of the ping is reported to be near where the tail was found.

S.B Supriyadi, who is stationed at the search headquarters of Pangkalan Bun

Forty-four bodies, along with debris from the plane, have been plucked from the surface of the waters off Borneo. But strong winds and high waves have hampered efforts to reach larger pieces of suspected wreckage detected by sonar on the sea floor. Indonesia AirAsia, 49 per cent owned by the Malaysia-based AirAsia budget group, has come under pressure from authorities in Jakarta since the crash. The transport ministry has suspended the carrier’s Surabaya-Singapore license, saying it only had permission to fly the route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Asia-Pacific QZ8501