Indonesia finds Lion Air jet\'s cockpit voice recorder

Indonesia finds Lion Air jet's cockpit voice recorder

AP  |  Jakarta 

Navy divers have located the cockpit voice recorder of a jet that crashed into the Sea in October, Indonesian officials said Monday, in a possible boost to the accident investigation.

Ridwan Djamaluddin, a deputy maritime minister, told reporters that remains of some of the 189 people who died in the crash were also discovered at the seabed location.

"We got confirmation this morning from the National Transportation Safety Committee's chairman," he said.

A for the Indonesian navy's western fleet, Lt Col Agung Nugroho, said divers using found the voice recorder beneath 8 meters (26 feet) of seabed mud. The plane crashed in waters 30 meters (98 feet) deep.

The 2-month-old 737 MAX 8 jet plunged into the Sea just minutes after taking off from on October 29, killing everyone on board.

The cockpit data recorder was recovered within days of the crash and showed that the jet's airspeed indicator had malfunctioned on its last four flights.

If the voice recorder is undamaged, it could provide valuable additional information to investigators.

The crash was the in since 1997, when 234 people died on a flight near In December 2014, an flight from to plunged into the sea, killing all 162 on board.

is one of Indonesia's youngest airlines but has grown rapidly, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations. It has been expanding aggressively in Southeast Asia, a fast-growing region of more than 600 million people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Mon, January 14 2019. 10:15 IST