The tail section of the ill-fated AirAsia airplane that crashed into Indonesia ’s Java Sea on December 28, 2014 was lifted up from seabed on January 10. However, the black box was likely to drop off from it.

According to Indonesia authorities, floating balloons were used to hoist the red metal chunk with the carrier’s logo written across it from a depth of about 30 metres.
The recovery of the tail, where the black box was homed, is essential to explaining the cause of the disaster. However, divers found no sign of the recorder when they opened the tail’s cabin, said S.B Supriyadi, Director of the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency.

The discovery of the tail on the ocean floor earlier in the week was a major breakthrough in the slow-moving search, increasing hope for finding the black box.

AirAsia Flight QZ8501 lost contact with an air traffic control station in the morning of December 28, only 42 minutes after taking off from Indonesia ’s Surabaya airport for Singapore .

It carried 162 passengers and crew members, including 155 Indonesians, three Koreans, one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one French, and one British.

To date, 48 bodies of the victims have been found and 27 of whom have been identified.-VNA