Two months and more after a Boeing 737-500 belonging to Sriwijaya Air went down into the Java Sea minutes after leaving Jakarta, taking all 62 people aboard with it, Indonesia's transport ministry has recovered the cockpit voice recorder. It is the missing half of a story that has so far been told only through machinery: the flight data is already in hand, but the human voices of the final minutes have been submerged until now. Set against a nation whose islands depend on flight and whose skies have already claimed many lives, the discovery offers a chance to hear what the crew knew, even as t
Indonesia Finds Cockpit Voice Recorder From Crashed Sriwijaya Air Jet, Two Months After Deadly Crash
All 62 passengers and crew aboard the Sriwijaya Air flight were killed when the jet plunged into the sea minutes after takeoff from Jakarta.
The missing piece was what the crew was saying as the flight went wrong.
Mark
Why does finding this recorder matter so much, when they already had the flight data recorder?
Mimi
The data recorder tells you what the plane did. The voice recorder tells you what the crew said and how they reacted. After two months, that's the missing half.
Mark
The preliminary report already mentioned throttle problems, right?
Mimi
Yes, pilots had reported multiple problems with the throttle system on this aging jet before the crash. But investigators said it was too early to name a cause.
Luke
That's an important line. Reported problems before the crash is not the same as proving the throttle caused it. The reporting doesn't establish that link.
Mark
So what would the recording actually add?
Mimi
Potentially what the crew was saying as the flight from Jakarta to Pontianak went down. The article calls it vital clues, though nobody has said what's on it.
Luke
Right, and nobody outside the investigation has heard it. We only know it was found, announced by the ministry, with a briefing still to come.
Mark
Why does the Lion Air crash come up?
Mimi
Indonesia depends on air travel across its islands and has had several deadly crashes. Lion Air in 2018 killed 189 people.
Luke
But the article is explicit that this plane was not a MAX. The mention is context about Indonesia's record, not a suggestion of a shared cause.
Mark
And the condition of the recorder?
Luke
Unknown from this report. Whether the data is readable isn't stated.
Der Puls
- A cockpit voice recorder from the crashed Sriwijaya Air 737-500 has finally surfaced in the Java Sea, more than two months after the January 9 disaster.
- Investigators hold the flight data recorder but have been missing the crew's voices from the plane's final minutes.
- A preliminary report points to pilots' repeated complaints about throttle problems, yet officials refuse to name a cause.
- Analysts must now match the audio against the flight data to determine whether the throttle faults or something else brought the jet down.
- The ministry's briefing is set to reveal the details of the recovery, and the answers are still days or weeks away.
Two months and more after a Boeing 737-500 belonging to Sriwijaya Air went down into the Java Sea minutes after leaving Jakarta, taking all 62 people aboard with it, Indonesia's transport ministry has recovered the cockpit voice recorder. It is the missing half of a story that has so far been told only through machinery: the flight data is already in hand, but the human voices of the final minutes have been submerged until now. Set against a nation whose islands depend on flight and whose skies have already claimed many lives, the discovery offers a chance to hear what the crew knew, even as the cause remains unsettled.
Indonesia's transport ministry announced on Wednesday that the cockpit voice recorder from a crashed Sriwijaya Air jet has been found. It came more than two months after the aircraft fell into the sea off Jakarta, killing all 62 people on board. Officials planned a press briefing later that morning.
The plane was a 26-year-old Boeing 737-500, once flown by two American carriers, Continental and United. On January 9 it was bound for Pontianak on Borneo, and only minutes after takeoff it plunged roughly 3,000 meters into the water. Divers had searched the Java Sea for weeks for the recorder, which holds the crew's conversations. The flight data recorder had come up earlier, so investigators already had the machine's electronic account. What they lacked was the voices.
A preliminary report last month noted that Indonesian pilots had flagged several throttle problems before the crash, but investigators stressed that no cause had yet been confirmed. The crash also fits a painful pattern. Indonesia's scattered islands rely heavily on air travel, and the country has suffered many deadly accidents, including the 2018 Lion Air 737 MAX crash that killed 189 people. This aircraft was an older 737, not a MAX, so those findings do not apply directly.
Next, investigators will compare the recording with the flight data to determine whether the throttle issues or something else caused the disaster. The ministry's briefing that afternoon is where the details of the recovery will first emerge.
Indonesia's transport ministry announced on Wednesday that the cockpit voice recorder from a crashed Sriwijaya Air passenger jet has been found, more than two months after the accident that killed all 62 people aboard. Officials said a press briefing about the discovery would be held later that morning.
The aircraft was a Boeing 737-500, 26 years old, and had earlier been flown by two US carriers, Continental Airlines and United Airlines. On January 9 it fell roughly 3,000 meters into waters off Jakarta, only minutes after taking off. It had been bound from Jakarta to Pontianak, on the island of Borneo.
The voice recorder is one of the plane's two so-called black boxes, and it captures the conversations of the flight crew. Divers had been combing the Java Sea for it for weeks. The other device, the flight data recorder, had been pulled earlier from a seabed littered with wreckage, so investigators have had part of the plane's electronic record for some time. The missing piece was what the crew was saying as the flight went wrong.
What investigators have said so far is cautious. A preliminary report issued last month noted that Indonesian pilots had reported multiple problems with the aging jet's throttle system before the fatal crash. But the investigators stressed that it was too early to name an exact cause. The recorder could now supply vital clues about what the crew was saying in the final moments.
The crash sits within a difficult pattern for the country. Indonesia is an archipelago of thousands of islands and depends heavily on air transport to connect them, and in recent years it has suffered a string of deadly crashes. In October 2018, a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX plunged into the sea, killing 189 people. That accident, along with another in Ethiopia, led to the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX over a faulty anti-stall system.
The Sriwijaya jet was not a MAX. It belonged to an older 737 generation, which is why the Lion Air findings do not carry over to it directly.
The next step is for investigators to analyze the recording alongside the flight data already recovered. Their task is to establish whether the throttle problems flagged in the preliminary report, or something else, brought the plane down. The ministry's briefing later on Wednesday is the first place to look for details on the recovery.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
A press briefing would be held regarding the discovery of the Cockpit Voice Recorder.— Indonesia's transport ministry
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