JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian navy divers retrieved one of the black box recorders from an Indonesian passenger jet that crashed over the weekend with 62 people, according to local television reports.
It was not clear if the device was the flight data recorder or the cockpit data recorder, or both, Kompas TV said.
Television footage showed the divers taking the device, kept in a white container, to the search command center at Jakarta’s main port.
Data from the recorders could help crash investigators to shed light on the cause of the accident.
The Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 jet plunged into the sea minutes after taking off from Jakarta airport on Saturday.
At least 3,600 people were involved in the search on Tuesday, an increase on 2,600 the previous day, while a ship with underwater sonar technology joined dozens of other vessels, said Brig. Gen. Sarman, operations chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency.
“Our hope is that with our resources, underwater detection will be maximized, with support of friendly weather,” said Sarman, who goes by one name.
Police on Monday identified the first victim of the crash after matching the fingerprint from body parts found in the Java Sea.
Searchers have already recovered aircraft pieces, including a mangled engine turbine, and 74 bags of body parts, officials said.
The head of the National Transportation Safety Committee, Soerijanto Tjahjono, said the aircraft disintegrated on impact with the sea and there were no signs of an in-flight breakup.
“We have recovered mangled engine fan and turbine blades, indicating that the engines were working with high thrust at the time of the impact with the water,” he told reporters.
The domestic flight had been en route to Pontianak on Borneo island in what was supposed to be a 90-minute journey.
The Transportation Ministry said Tuesday that the aircraft had its airworthiness certificate extended until December 2021 before the crash.
“The Civil Aviation Authority had conducted routine inspections prior to the extension of the air operator certificate for Sriwijaya Air aircraft in November 2020,” ministry spokeswoman Adita Irawati said in a statement.
The Saturday crash is the third involving an Indonesian budget airline since 2014.
An AirAsia Indonesia flight carrying 162 people crashed into the Java Sea off Borneo island shortly after take-off on Dec. 28 2014, with no survivors.
In October 2018, a Boeing 737 Max belonging to Indonesia’s largest budget carrier Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people on board.
Indonesia, which is made up of thousands of islands, experienced a boom in low-cost carriers following the liberalization of the aviation industry in the early 2000s.
In 2018, the European Union lifted a ban on Indonesian airlines, which was imposed in 2007 following a string of deadly air accidents.
Several Indonesian airlines, including flag carrier Garuda, were taken off the EU’s ban list in 2009 after steps were taken to improve safety.
In 2017, the International Civil Aviation Organization ranked Indonesia’s aviation safety as above the global average, with a compliance rate of 81.15 percent.
