Divers retrieve black box of crashed AirAsia plane

Jakarta, Jan 12 (IANS) Indonesian divers retrieved the black box of the crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 in the Java Sea, Bambang Soelistyo, chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) said on Monday.

"The black box was discovered under the wing of the Airbus 320-200," Bambang Soelistyo told a press conference, adding that another black box, the cockpit voice recorder, had not been found.

The divers from the Navy in Jadayat state succeeded in locating one of the black boxes of the ill-fated aircraft on Sunday but failed to retrieve it, the transport ministry said, Xinhua reported.

The flight data and cockpit voice recorders, known as black boxes, are crucial to helping determine the cause of the crash.

Flight QZ8501, with 162 people aboard, went down in the Java Sea during its flight from Surabaya to Singapore on Dec 28, 2014.

Forty eight bodies have been recovered from the sea and 27 of them have been been identified so far.