AirAsia QZ8501 investigators say final minutes of recording full of 'sounds of warnings'
The final minutes of the ill-fated AirAsia flight QZ8501 that crashed had “sounds of machines and sounds of warnings”.
That's what Andreas Hananto, one of the investigators from the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), told Reuters on Monday (Jan 19).
The black boxes were retrieved from the bottom of the Java sea after a massive multi-national effort.
He also ruled out terrorism as a case for the crash because no threats or explosions could be heard.
“In that critical situation, the recording indicates that the pilot was busy with the handling of the plane.” - Andreas Hananto
He declined to give details about what was said during the doomed flight’s final moments, citing Indonesian law.
They team of 10 investigators from the NTSB are working closely with the French, Singaporean and Chinese air safety investigators.
They have listened to the whole recording but transcribed only the first half of the two-hour-long cockpit voice recording. This includes audio from the previous flight and the beginning of Flight QZ8501, which crashed around 40 minutes after take-off.
They hope to finish transcribing the recording by the end of this week and a preliminary report on the crash early next week.
A full report, however, could take up to a year.
Source: Reuters
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Related reports:
Divers retrieve second blackbox from AirAsia QZ8501
Crashed AirAsia jet's flight data recorder retrieved, says official
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