Jakarta: Authorities have pinpointed the location of two black boxes from a crashed Indonesian jet, they said on Sunday, referring to cockpit voice and flight data recorders that could be crucial to understanding what happened to the aircraft, which had 62 people aboard.
Indonesian investigators said the plane broke apart upon impact with water, which could rule out a mid-air breakup.
National Transportation Safety Committee Chairman Soerjanto Tjahjono shared his conclusion by text message, without elaborating. We have located the position of the black boxes, both of them, said Soerjanto Tjahjanto, head of Indonesia s transport safety agency. Divers will start looking for them now and hopefully it won t be long before we get them.
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The crash of a Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 about four minutes after it took off from Jakarta Saturday is the latest in a series of air accidents to rock Indonesia.
The Southeast Asian archipelago relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands but has suffered a string of deadly plane crashes in recent years.
The aviation sector is expanding fast as its economy booms but there are concerns airlines are struggling to find enough well-trained personnel to keep up with the rapid growth.
Once banned from European airspace over safety fears, the EU removed all Indonesian airlines from its safety blacklist in 2018 following improvements.