Crashed Indonesia passenger jet's cockpit voice recorder found: Ministry

Jakarta - A flight data recorder was earlier plucked from the wreckage-littered seabed.

The cockpit voice recorder from a crashed Indonesian passenger jet has been found, the country’s transport ministry said on Wednesday, more than two months after the accident that killed all 62 passengers and crew.

Officials said a press briefing “regarding the discovery of the Cockpit Voice Recorder” from the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 would be held later Wednesday morning.

The 26-year-old plane — previously flown by US-based Continental Airlines and United Airlines — plunged around 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) into waters off Jakarta just minutes after takeoff on January 9.

Divers had been searching the Java Sea for the missing voice recorder — one of the plane’s two “black boxes” — which records flight crew conversations.

A flight data recorder was earlier plucked from the wreckage-littered seabed.

A preliminary report into the crash last month said Indonesian pilots had reported multiple problems with the ageing jet’s throttle system before the fatal crash.

But investigators had said it was too early to pinpoint an exact cause.