The doomed AirAsia plane had “exploded” on hitting the water in the Java Sea due to rapid change in pressure, as divers on Monday retrieved part of the crucial black box of the jet that crashed over two weeks ago, killing all 162 people on board.
In a potential breakthrough to solve the mystery of the fatal crash on December 28, Indonesian divers retrieved the flight data recorder that was found under the debris of the Airbus A320-200’s wing, after days of multi-national efforts to scour the seabed were hampered by bad weather. The cockpit voice recorder — part of two recorders that make up the black box — was also located 20 metres from the flight data recorder but has not been retrieved yet.
Meanwhile, search and rescue agency coordinator SB Supriyadi gave new dramatic details of the accident, saying an initial analysis of the wreckage recovered so far indicated the plane exploded on impact with the water due to a rapid change in pressure.
“It exploded because of the pressure,” he told reporters in Pangkalan Bun, the town closest to the site. “The cabin was pressurised and before the pressure of the cabin could be adjusted, it went down — boom. That explosion was heard in the area,” he said, adding the left side of the plane seemed to have disintegrated.
He said the fact that fishermen in the area had reported hearing an explosion and saw smoke above the water supported the possibility. Supriyadi told CNN he came to that conclusion because part of the Airbus A320-200’s tail was broken into pieces and a flight data recorder was thrown more than a kilometre away.
Earlier today, chief of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency Basarnas Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo said the object found on Monday was confirmed to be the flight data recorder through its tag number.