"The search operation, however, has not yet finished as we still have to find the Cockpit Voice Recorder and the fuselage as well as the bodies of more passeengers," he said at the Iskandar airbase.
General Moeldoko arrived at the base at around 11.45 a.m. from Jakarta and immediately left by a helicopter for KRI Banda Aceh to fetch the black box. He was accompanied by the chief of the National Committee for Transportation Safety (KNKT), Tatang Kurniadi.
The KNKT chief noted that the FDR has been received by KNKT and has been "safe." It will soon be taken to the KNKT headquarters in Jakarta by an air force plane and opened immediately in the presence of witnesses from France, Singapore, and the TNI headquarters.
"There must be witnesses when it is opened; KNKT is familiar with procedures to be followed," he added.
The chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency, FH Bambang Soelistyo, remarked that a team of TNI divers consisting of captain Syaiful adjutant Bambang, second sergeant Rajab, and second corporal Edi Susilo retrieved the black box at 7.11 am on Monday.
According to him, a search team has been looking for the Cockpit Voice Recorder as well as the bodies of more passengers of AirAsia QZ8501 that crashed in the Java Sea in Central Kalimantan en route from Surabaya, East Java, to Singapore on December 28 with 162 people on board.
So far, 48 bodies of its passengers have been recovered.
(Reporting by Virna P. Setyorini/Uu.H-YH/INE/KR-BSR/B003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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