AirAsia jet's tail lifted from sea, but no black boxes found
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A tail section from the crashed AirAsia plane became the first major wreckage lifted off the seabed Saturday, but the all-important black boxes were not found inside two weeks after Flight 8501 went down, killing all 162 people on board.
The red metal chunk, with the words "AirAsia" clearly visible across it, was brought to the sea's surface using inflatable balloons. The cockpit voice and flight data recorders, located in the plane's rear, must have detached when the Airbus A320 plummeted into the sea Dec. 28, said Indonesian military commander Gen. Moeldoko. Their recovery is essential to finding out why it crashed.
However, Moeldoko, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said pings believed to be coming from the black boxes were detected Saturday. The boxes' beacons emit signals for about 30 days until the batteries die, meaning divers have about two weeks left to find them.
"I am fully confident that the black boxes are still not far from the tail," Moeldoko said.
