The Flight-Data Recorder (FDR) of a Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 that crashed with 45 passengers on board on May 9 after it slammed into a steep mountainside south of Indonesia's capital Jakarta has been recovered.
The local people found the parametric flight data recorder buried deep under the ground 20 meters from the tail wreckage on Wednesday, said Vice-Marshal Daryatmo, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency.
Daryatmo, along with Bogor military Commander Putranto and the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) Chief Tatang Kurniadi, displayed the FDR in unburned condition at a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.
The recovery of the FDR, which records the speed, pitch and altitude of the plane during flight, is expected to reveal the cause of the accident, which has remained unclear.
An Indonesian search team on May 15 retrieved an apparently heavily damaged Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), which records communication between pilots and air traffic controllers, about 100 meters from the tail of the crashed plane.
Kurniadi said the FDR was still in good condition, but it would take up to 12 months to analyze data from the device.
He said Indonesian officials are analyzing the data from the CVR with the help of Russian experts, who are already part of the Indonesia-Russia joint investigation team.
A transcription of recorded dialogue between the pilot and co-pilot on the CVR was completed, and KNKT is now analyzing the transcription with the assistance of an interpreter from the Indonesian embassy in Uzbekistan.
The Sukhoi Superjet was flying from Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma Airport with 37 passengers, six crew and two Sukhoi officials, and when it reached near Mount Salak about 30 minutes into the flight, radio contact with the aircraft was lost.
The accident took place when the plane was trying to descend from an altitude of 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet while heading to to Halim Perdanakusuma Airport.
There were eight Russians, one American, one French, two Italians and 33 Indonesians on board the aircraft which was performing a series of demonstration flights in several Central and Southeast Asian countries to introduce the aircraft to prospective buyers.
Sukhoi officials were aiming to convince Indonesian airline firms to buy at least 40 of the aircraft. The Sukhoi Superjet-100 is Russia's first new generation passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union and is designed to replace the obsolete Tu-134 and Yak-42.
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