Antara Foto/Muhammad Adimaja via REUTERS
Indonesian divers found the black box of the downed Lion Air JT610 flight on Thursday morning.
- Indonesian Navy divers have located and retrieved the black box from the Lion Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea on Monday morning.
- Divers found the device from the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft Thursday morning, on day four of a search hampered by poor conditions.
- The black box is a type of flight data recorder, which officials believe will help explain why the near-new aircraft went down.
- The first victim has also been formally identified as a 24-year-old female employee at Jakarta's energy ministry.
- All 189 people on board that plane are believed to be dead.
Indonesian Navy divers have retrieved the black box from the Lion Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea earlier this week.
Divers lifted the recording device from the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft on Thursday morning, Reuters reported, the fourth day of the investigation into why the jet downed and who the victims were.
The almost-new Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed into waters around Indonesia just 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta on Monday morning. All 189 people on board are believed to be dead.
Airplane black boxes are a type of flight data recorder, which officials believe will help explain why the Lion Air plane went down. It is now in the possession of search and rescue officials in Indonesia, Reuters reported.
The flight's pilot was granted a request to turn back about two minutes after takeoff, but communications from the plane went silent before it fell into the sea minutes later.
REUTERS/Edgar Su
Police identify recovered belongings believed to be from the crashed flight.
The search goes on
Crews have been scouring the Java Sea for the plane's fuselage and recorders, as so many questions remain unresolved.
But the desperate search for the recording devices has been roundly hampered by strong sea currents.
Indonesia's transport ministry on Thursday suspended Lion Air's maintenance and engineering directors, fleet maintenance manager, and the engineer who gave the jet permission to fly on Monday, for 120 days to allow for an uninterrupted investigation, Reuters reported.
Lion Air's founder and owner, Rusdi Kirana, also said it was too early to determine what led to the disaster, according to Bloomberg.
Rumors have also been swirling as to what exactly could cause a near-new Boeing aircraft carrying 189 people to crash in good weather.
Aviation experts have said investigators will be depending on the black box before a definitive answer can be made.
REUTERS/Beawiharta
Shoes of passengers of Lion Air flight JT610 were laid out at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta.
First victim formally identified
Indonesian police have also formally identified the first victim of the crash.
She was named as Jannatun Dewi, a 24-year-old woman from from Sidoarjo, East Java, and a civil servant for the energy ministry in Jakarta. She was a passengers on the flight.
Indonesia's national police started collecting DNA samples from the victims' relatives, according to The Jakarta Post, but the process has been slow because officials have only found body parts to work with.
With distraught family members gathering in Jakarta, officials have said that that they do not expect anyone on flight JT610, flying from Jakarta to the nearby island of Bangka, to have survived.
As the search has narrowed, divers and Indonesian search and rescue have slowly began to accumulate the evidence of Indonesia's latest air tragedy and the lives it has taken. Personal effects, debris, and body parts have been found.
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