JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities said they would immediately begin examining a damaged black box retrieved on Thursday from the sunken wreckage of a Lion Air jet that crashed off Jakarta this week, killing all 189 people on board.

Indonesia’s second-deadliest air disaster since 1997 has prompted renewed concern about its patchy safety record, and the government has said Lion Air will be regulated more closely.

The investigation of the first crash of a Boeing Co (BA.N) 737 MAX, introduced into commercial service last year, will also be scrutinized by the global aviation industry.

“Tonight we will move as quickly as possible to download what is in this black box,” Haryo Satmiko, deputy chief of Indonesia’s transportation safety committee (KNKT), told a news conference.

The extent of damage to the device showed the “extraordinary impact” of the crash, he said.

Despite initial reports, authorities did not know for certain whether the “crash survivable memory unit” was from the flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder, as portions of it were missing, Satmiko said.

Searchers have yet to detect a location signal from the second of the two black boxes, housed at opposite ends of the aircraft. Although the seafloor is only about 30 meters down, strong currents and energy pipelines in the area have hampered search efforts.

The data it holds should provide clues to what went wrong.

Related Coverage Indonesia to consider raising budget airfares after Lion Air crash: minister

ORANGE CYLINDER

The plane, which had only been in service since August, went silent 13 minutes after taking off on Monday from Jakarta, heading for the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang. The pilot had already received permission to return to base.

A navy diver on board a search vessel told the broadcaster Metro TV that his team found the orange cylinder containing the recorder among debris on the muddy sea floor.

Under normal conditions, the data should only take two hours to download, said Satmiko, although analyzing it could take several weeks.

The results from a preliminary investigation will be made public after 30 days, another KNKT official said.

Hopes are fading of finding a large section of fuselage intact, with easily retrievable bodies inside.

“What is important for us is to get more information about the victims because having their remains back is important for us so we can bury them properly,” said Ade Inyo, whose brother-in-law was on the flight.

Only one of the flight’s passengers has been identified from the partial remains retrieved so far.

Chief of National Search and Rescue Agency Muhammad Syaugi shows a part of the black box of Lion Air's flight JT610 airplane, on Baruna Jaya ship, in the north sea of Karawang, Indonesia, November 1, 2018. Antara Foto/Muhammad Adimaja via REUTERS

The investigation will be carried out with help from Boeing, General Electric (GE.N) and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, officials have said.

It will also focus on four Lion Air staff, including its technical director, who the transport ministry said it has suspended on Wednesday, amid speculation that aircraft had not been airworthy.

CLOSER SUPERVISION

The privately owned budget carrier was founded in 1999. Its aircraft have been involved in at least 15 safety incidents and it has been placed under tougher international safety restrictions than other Indonesian airlines.

It will now be subjected to more intensive “on ramp” inspections than other airlines, authorities said.

President Joko Widodo has also ordered a review of all regulations relating to flight safety.

Indonesia is one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets. Its transport safety committee investigated 137 serious aviation incidents from 2012 to 2017.

Lion Air said the aircraft that crashed had been airworthy and the pilot and co-pilot had 11,000 hours of flying time between them.

But according to the transport safety committee, the plane had technical problems on its previous flight on Sunday, from the resort island of Bali, including an issue concerning “unreliable airspeed”.

Slideshow (9 Images)

Lion Air chief executive Edward Sirait has acknowledged reports of technical problems with the aircraft, but said maintenance had been carried out “according to procedure” before it was cleared to fly again.

Lion Air’s only other fatal accident was in 2004, when an MD-82 crashed upon landing at Solo City, killing 25 of the 163 people on board, according to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety Network.

In April, the airline announced a firm order to buy 50 Boeing 737 MAX 10 jets, with a list price of $6.24 billion. It is one of the U.S. planemaker’s largest customers, and was the first carrier anywhere to take delivery of the narrow-body jet.</s>JAKARTA, Indonesia — Divers in Indonesia recovered the crashed Lion Air jet's flight data recorder from the seafloor on Thursday, a crucial development in the investigation into what caused the 2-month-old plane to plunge into the ocean earlier this week, killing 189 people. Relatives, meanwhile, buried the first victim to be identified and prayed at her flower-covered grave.

TV showed footage of two divers after they surfaced, swimming to an inflatable vessel and placing the bright orange device into a large container that was transferred to a search-and-rescue ship.

"I was desperate because the current below was strong but I am confident of the tools given to me," said navy 1st Sgt. Hendra, who uses a single name. After narrowing the possible location, "I started digging and cleaning the debris until I finally found an orange object," he told TV, standing on the deck of a ship next to his diving mates.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crashed early Monday just minutes after takeoff from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. It was the worst airline disaster in Indonesia in more than two decades and renewed concerns about safety in its fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and U.S. blacklists.

Navy Col. Monang Sitompul told local TV an object believed to be part of the aircraft's fuselage was also seen on the seafloor.

The device recovered by divers is the flight data recorder, and the search for the cockpit voice recorder continues, said Bambang Irawan, an investigator with the transport safety committee.

Members of National Transportation Safety Committee lift a box containing the flight data recorder from the crashed Lion Air jet onboard a rescue ship anchored in the waters of Tanjung Karawang, Indonesia, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018.

The flight data recorder, or FDR, is expected to provide investigators with detailed information about the flight such as altitude, airspeed and heading. The voice recorder also provides valuable information — not only the cockpit crew's voices but engine sounds, instrumentation warnings and other audio that investigators can interpret. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board says sophisticated computer and audio equipment is used to extract and translate the data into an understandable format.

"We will process the data contained in this FDR as part of the investigation process to find out the cause of the crash," Irawan said. "We cannot say how long it takes to process data in a black box, but of course we will try as soon as possible."

The flight recorder was recovered from a depth of about 30 meters (98 feet), some 500 meters (1,640 feet) from where the plane lost contact, said search and rescue agency head Muhammad Syaugi.

"The currents below the sea are still strong which makes it difficult for divers, but they persistently faced it," he said.

Relatives of 24-year-old Jannatun Cintya Dewi, whose remains were identified Wednesday, carried her body in a coffin covered in green cloth along a road in an East Java district to the burial place, followed by dozens of people in a solemn procession.

Her father and others knelt by the grave, which was sprinkled with red, white and yellow flowers, and prayed.

Other families face a longer wait to bury loved ones. Police medical experts say results from DNA tests needed for identification in many cases will take 4-8 days and remains are still being found.

U.S. investigators including from Boeing visited the Jakarta port on Thursday and picked through debris collected from the sea including pieces of aircraft and passenger belongings.

Data from flight-tracking sites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude in the early minutes of a flight on Sunday and on its fatal flight Monday. Safety experts caution, however, that the data must be checked for accuracy against the flight data recorder.

Several passengers on the Sunday flight from Bali to Jakarta have recounted problems that included a long-delayed takeoff for an engine check and terrifying descents in the first 10 minutes in the air.

Lion Air has ordered 50 of the MAX 8 planes and one of its subsidiary airlines was the first to operate the new generation jet last year.

Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said inspections of Boeing MAX 8 planes operated by Lion Air and national carrier Garuda have found no problems but the checks are continuing.

He said the Directorate-General of Air Transportation has asked Lion Air to remove four key officials from duty — its director of maintenance and engineering, quality control manager, flight maintenance manager and release manager — so they can assist the investigation. He said their aircraft maintenance engineer licenses have been suspended.

Investigators say a preliminary report into the accident could be released within a month but complete findings will take several months more.

The Lion Air crash is the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since 1997, when 234 people died on a Garuda flight near Medan. In December 2014, an AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea, killing all 162 on board.

Indonesian airlines were barred in 2007 from flying to Europe because of safety concerns, though several were allowed to resume services in the following decade. The ban was completely lifted in June. The U.S. lifted a decadelong ban in 2016.

Lion Air, a discount carrier, is one of Indonesia's youngest and biggest airlines, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations. It has been expanding aggressively in Southeast Asia, a fast-growing region of more than 600 million people.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Divers on Thursday recovered a flight data recorder from the crashed Lion Air jet on the seafloor, a crucial development in the investigation into what caused the 2-month-old plane to plunge into Indonesian seas earlier this week, killing all 189 people on board.

One TV station showed footage of two divers after they surfaced, swimming to an inflatable vessel and placing the bright orange device into a large container that was transferred to a search-and-rescue ship.

"I was desperate because the current below was strong but I am confident of the tools given to me," said navy 1st Sgt. Hendra, who uses a single name, in a television interview. After narrowing the possible location, "I started digging and cleaning the debris until I finally found an orange object," he said, standing on the deck of a ship next to his diving mate.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crashed early Monday just minutes after takeoff from the Indonesian capital Jakarta. It was the worst airline disaster in Indonesia in more than two decades and renewed concerns about safety in its fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and U.S. blacklists.

Navy Col. Monang Sitompul told local TV an object believed to be the aircraft's fuselage was also seen on the seafloor.

The device recovered by divers is the flight data recorder and the search for the cockpit voice recorder continues, said Bambang Irawan, an investigator with the National Transport Safety Commission.

"We will process the data contained in this FDR as part of the investigation process to find out the cause of the crash," he said. "We cannot say how long it takes to process data in a black box, but of course we will try as soon as possible."

The location of the find was about 500 meters (yards) northwest of the coordinates where the plane lost contact and at a depth of 30 meters, said search and rescue agency head Muhammad Syaugi.

"The currents below the sea are still strong which make it difficult for divers, but they persistently face it," he said.

Data from flight-tracking sites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude in the early minutes of a flight on Sunday and on its fatal flight Monday. Safety experts caution, however, that the data must be checked for accuracy against the flight data recorder.

Several passengers on the Sunday flight from Bali to Jakarta have recounted problems that included a long-delayed takeoff for an engine check and terrifying descents in the first 10 minutes in the air.

Lion Air has ordered 50 of the MAX 8 planes and one of its subsidiary airlines was last year the first to operate the new generation jet.

Investigators say a preliminary report into the accident could be released within a month but complete findings will take several months more.

The Lion Air crash is the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since 1997, when 234 people died on a Garuda flight near Medan. In December 2014, an AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea, killing all 162 on board.

Indonesian airlines were barred in 2007 from flying to Europe because of safety concerns, though several were allowed to resume services in the following decade. The ban was completely lifted in June. The U.S. lifted a decadelong ban in 2016.

Lion Air, a discount carrier, is one of Indonesia's youngest and biggest airlines, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations. It has been expanding aggressively in Southeast Asia, a fast-growing region of more than 600 million people.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Navy divers interviewed on Indonesian TV say they recovered crashed jet's flight recorder from sea floor

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Navy divers interviewed on Indonesian TV say they recovered crashed jet's flight recorder from sea floor.</s>JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Navy divers interviewed on Indonesian TV say they recovered crashed jet’s flight recorder from sea floor.</s>Divers recovered the crashed Lion Air jet’s flight data recorder from the seafloor on Thursday, a crucial development in the investigation into what caused the 2-month-old plane to plunge into Indonesian seas earlier this week, killing 189 people. Relatives, meanwhile, buried the first victim to be identified and prayed at her flower-covered grave.

TV showed footage of two divers after they surfaced, swimming to an inflatable vessel and placing the bright orange device into a large container that was transferred to a search-and-rescue ship.

READ MORE: Indonesian plane flew erratically with unreliable speed readings the day before fatal crash

“I was desperate because the current below was strong but I am confident of the tools given to me,” said navy 1st Sgt. Hendra, who uses a single name. After narrowing the possible location, “I started digging and cleaning the debris until I finally found an orange object,” he told TV, standing on the deck of a ship next to his diving mate.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crashed early Monday just minutes after takeoff from the Indonesian capital Jakarta. It was the worst airline disaster in Indonesia in more than two decades and renewed concerns about safety in its fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and U.S. blacklists.

Navy Col. Monang Sitompul told local TV an object believed to be the aircraft’s fuselage was also seen on the seafloor.

WATCH: Indonesia airliner crashes minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 on board

The device recovered by divers is the flight data recorder and the search for the cockpit voice recorder continues, said Bambang Irawan, an investigator with the National Transport Safety Commission.

“We will process the data contained in this FDR as part of the investigation process to find out the cause of the crash,” he said. “We cannot say how long it takes to process data in a black box, but of course we will try as soon as possible.”

The flight data recorder was recovered from a depth of 30 metres, about 500 metres northwest from where the plane lost contact, said search and rescue agency head Muhammad Syaugi.

“The currents below the sea are still strong which make it difficult for divers, but they persistently face it,” he said.

Relatives of 24-year-old Jannatun Cintya Dewi, whose remains were identified Wednesday, carried her in a coffin covered in green cloth along a road in an East Java district to the burial place, followed by a solemn procession of dozens.

READ MORE: Lion Air passenger missed doomed flight because he was stuck in traffic

Her father and others knelt by the grave, which was sprinkled with red and yellow flowers, and prayed.

Other families face a longer wait to bury loved ones. Police medical experts say results from DNA tests needed for identification in many cases will take 4-8 days.

U.S. investigators on Thursday visited the Jakarta port and picked through debris collected from the sea including pieces of aircraft and passenger belongings.

Data from flight-tracking sites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude in the early minutes of a flight on Sunday and on its fatal flight Monday. Safety experts caution, however, that the data must be checked for accuracy against the flight data recorder.

Several passengers on the Sunday flight from Bali to Jakarta have recounted problems that included a long-delayed takeoff for an engine check and terrifying descents in the first 10 minutes in the air.

Lion Air has ordered 50 of the MAX 8 planes and one of its subsidiary airlines was the first to operate the new generation jet last year.

Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said inspections of Boeing MAX 8 planes operated by Lion Air and national carrier Garuda have found no problems but the examination was continuing.

He said the Directorate-General of Air Transportation has asked Lion Air to remove four key officials from duty – its director of maintenance and engineering, quality control manager, flight maintenance manager and release manager – so they can assist the investigation. He said their aircraft maintenance engineer licenses have been suspended.

Investigators say a preliminary report into the accident could be released within a month but complete findings will take several months more.

READ MORE: Pilot asked to return Indonesian plane to base before it plunged into sea with 189 people on board

The Lion Air crash is the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since 1997, when 234 people died on a Garuda flight near Medan. In December 2014, an AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea, killing all 162 on board.

Indonesian airlines were barred in 2007 from flying to Europe because of safety concerns, though several were allowed to resume services in the following decade. The ban was completely lifted in June. The U.S. lifted a decadelong ban in 2016.

Lion Air, a discount carrier, is one of Indonesia’s youngest and biggest airlines, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations. It has been expanding aggressively in Southeast Asia, a fast-growing region of more than 600 million people.</s>Divers recovered the crashed Lion Air jet's flight data recorder from the seafloor on Thursday, a crucial development in the investigation into what caused the 2-month-old plane to plunge into Indonesian seas earlier this week, killing 189 people. Relatives, meanwhile, buried the first victim to be identified and prayed at her flower-covered grave.

TV showed images of two divers after they surfaced, swimming to an inflatable vessel and placing the bright orange device into a large container that was transferred to a search-and-rescue ship.

"I was desperate because the current below was strong but I am confident of the tools given to me," said navy 1st Sgt. Hendra, who uses a single name. After narrowing the possible location, "I started digging and cleaning the debris until I finally found an orange object," he told TV, standing on the deck of a ship next to his diving mate.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crashed early Monday just minutes after takeoff from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. It was the worst airline disaster in Indonesia in more than two decades and renewed concerns about safety in its fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and U.S. blacklists.

Navy Col. Monang Sitompul told local TV an object believed to be the aircraft's fuselage was also seen on the seafloor.

The device recovered by divers is the flight data recorder and the search for the cockpit voice recorder continues, said Bambang Irawan, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Commission.

"We will process the data contained in this FDR as part of the investigation process to find out the cause of the crash," he said. "We cannot say how long it takes to process data in a black box, but of course we will try as soon as possible."

The flight data recorder was recovered from a depth of 98 feet, about 1,640 feet northwest from where the plane lost contact, said search-and-rescue agency head Muhammad Syaugi.

"The currents below the sea are still strong, which make it difficult for divers, but they persistently face it," he said.</s>JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Divers on Thursday recovered a flight recorder from the crashed Lion Air jet on the sea floor, a crucial development in the investigation into what caused the 2-month-old plane to plunge into the sea earlier this week, killing all 189 people on board.

One TV station showed footage of two divers after they surfaced, swimming to an inflatable vessel and placing the bright orange device into a large container that was transferred to a search and rescue ship. Navy divers interviewed on Indonesian television described recovering the flight recorder.

"I was desperate because the current below was strong but I am confident of the tools given to me," said Navy 1st Sgt. Hendra, who uses a single name. After narrowing the possible location, "I started digging and cleaning the debris until I finally found an orange object," he said.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crashed early Monday just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta. It was the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since 1997 and renewed concerns about safety in its fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and U.S. blacklists.

Navy colonel Monang Sitompul said what is believed to the aircraft's fuselage was also seen on the seafloor.

Officials say the location is about 400 metres (yards) northwest of the co-ordinates where the plane lost contact.

Data from flight-tracking sites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude in the early minutes of a flight on Sunday and on its fatal flight Monday. Safety experts caution, however, that the data must be checked for accuracy against the flight data recorder.

Several passengers on the Sunday flight from Bali to Jakarta have recounted problems that included a long-delayed takeoff for an engine check and terrifying descents in the first 10 minutes in the air.</s>Divers recovered a flight data recorder on Thursday from the Lion Air jet that crashed in Indonesia earlier this week, a key step in the probe into what went wrong on a flight that killed all 189 people on board.

Indonesia's Transportation Ministry said divers had recovered one of the so-called black boxes and that they were looking for another one. The remaining black box that investigators are searching for is the cockpit voice recorder, the Associated Press reported.

The recovered box is a key step in the investigation in the crash of the less than three-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet in the Java Sea minutes after takeoff on Monday morning from Jakarta. It will provide government investigators with information about the plane's speed, direction and altitude. Flight-data tracking site Flightradar24 showed the airplane plunged at a high speed shortly after taking off.

The crash is the first for the top-selling narrow-body Boeing jet, which Lion Air started flying in August. Boeing and U.S. government accident investigators are aiding in the probe of the crash. The cause of the fatal crash has not yet been determined.

The incident also highlights the safety issues that have plagued Indonesia's fast-growing aviation industry, which until recently was barred from flying to the European Union. The crash was the country's deadliest since 1997 when 234 people died on a Garuda flight.

Divers are still searching for the remains of passengers from the area near the crash site.

The location of the black box was reportedly about 500 meters northwest of the coordinates where the plane lost contact.</s>Indonesian investigators have found the flight data recorder from Lion Air Flight JT610, a discovery that should help explain why the new Boeing 737 crashed Monday, killing all 189 people on board.

CNN Indonesia showed images of divers bringing the device, commonly known as a “black box,” on board one of the rescue ships in the sea close to Jakarta Thursday, four days after the Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet disappeared off radar during a routine short-haul flight.

The cockpit voice recorder (CVR), which records audio from the cockpit, is yet to be found, but is believed to be located on the seabed, some 35 meters (114 feet) deep.

National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) Deputy Director Haryo Satmiko told CNN that it will take two to three weeks to read the data from flight data recorder, and a further two to three months to analyze it.

Satmiko confirmed that in addition to the recorder “some parts” of the plane’s fuselage had also been found.

Monday’s ill-fated flight crashed 13 minutes after takeoff. It was supposed to be a one-hour flight to Pangkal Pinang on the island of Bangka.

Capt. Daniel Putut Kuncoro Adi, managing director of Lion Group, which owns Lion Air as well as other airlines, declined to offer any possible explanations to CNN for the crash.

“As a company we are waiting for the result from the National Transportation Safety Committee working with the black box” to determine what went wrong, Adi said Thursday.

Adi said that he knew the pilots on the flight and they “were very funny, very smart, very nice guys.”

He said he believed the pilots did their job “professionally and they struggled to save the aircraft,” and offered his condolences to the families of the victims.

The jetliner had experienced technical issues the day before on another route, passengers aboard that flight revealed to CNN.

On Sunday the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft — a new plane, which only had around 800 flying hours on the clock — had flown Lion Air’s Bali-Jakarta route and had experienced a significant drop in altitude, said passenger Robbi Gaharu.

According to Gaharu, a management consultant and frequent flier, Sunday’s Flight JT43 from Bali to Jakarta was around two hours late taking off from the Indonesian resort island.

When passengers eventually boarded, he said “things looked normal,” but when the plane took off, “it felt as if it was struggling to ascend.”

“I thought maybe it was caused by turbulence. After ten minutes in the air the plane dropped as if it was losing power. People panicked. It dropped about 400 feet,” said Gaharu, adding that he had confirmed the height of the drop on a flight tracker website.

He said the drop felt like falling into “a really really deep hole.”

Gaharu said that the seatbelt light remained on throughout the flight, and he saw the pilot and copilot outside the cockpit, “carrying what looked like a thick book.”

Bamnang Warsuta, a consultant who said he was also on the flight, described his terror as the plane suddenly dropped.

“I screamed. Everybody screamed. And then (I) just prayed to god.”

The president of Lion Air confirmed to CNN that the aircraft that crashed on Monday had been used to fly the JT43 Bali-Jakarta route the day before, and Indonesian authorities confirmed that the pilot on Sunday’s flight reported a problem with one of the plane’s instruments.

Lion Group’s Daniel Putut said that all information had been handed over to Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) and he could not answer any questions about the fault due to a non-disclosure agreement signed to accommodate the investigation.

Expert: ‘Something going on in that cockpit’

While no information has been released yet as to why the brand-new plane crashed into the sea 13 minutes after takeoff, FlightRadar24 has published data that shows the plane behaving erratically during takeoff.

When a plane would normally be ascending in the first few minutes of flight, the Lion Air jet experienced a 726-foot drop over 21 seconds.

Aviation expert David Soucie told CNN that the flight’s last moments were “outside of the normal manual flight mode.

“There was something going on in that cockpit. Or something they were battling against in the autopilot.”

On Wednesday, authorities started bringing relatives to the dockside to identify victims’ personal belongings, which lay piled up next to cushions and other debris that appeared to be from the aircraft.

Items fished out of the sea showed wallets and other personal effects, including a child’s Hello Kitty purse.

Epi Syamsul Qomar, whose 24-year-old son was on the flight, broke down into tears when he recognized his son’s shoe.

“I saw my son’s black sneaker,” he told CNN. “I also saw his bank checkbook.”

Qomar said he believes the body of his son, Muhammad Ravi Andriyan, is still inside the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
Indonesian divers retrieve the flight data recorder from the ocean near Karawang, Indonesia, where the plane had crashed three days prior.