Data recovered from crashed Lion Air data recorder: official
Jakarta (Indonesia), Nov 4 : Investigators succeeded in retrieving hours of data from a crashed Lion Air jet's flight recorder as Indonesian authorities on Sunday extended the search at sea for victims and debris.
National Transportation Safety Committee deputy chairman Haryo Satmiko told a news conference that 69 hours of flight data was downloaded from the recorder including its fatal flight.
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet crashed just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta on October 29, killing all 189 people on board in the country's worst airline disaster since 1997.
The flight data recorder was recovered by divers on Thursday in damaged condition and investigators said it required special handling to retrieve its information.
The cockpit voice recorder has not been recovered but searchers are focusing on a particular area based on a weak locator signal.
National Search and Rescue Agency chief Muhammad Syaugi said Sunday the search operation, now in its 7th day and involving hundreds of personnel and dozens of ships, would continue for another three days.
Syaugi paid tribute to a volunteer diver, Syahrul Anto, who died during the search effort on Friday. The family of the 48-year-old refused an autopsy and he was buried Saturday in Surabaya.
More than 100 body bags of human remains had been recovered. Syaugi said the number would continue to increase and remains were also now washing up on land.
He said weak signals, potentially from the cockpit voice recorder, were traced to a location but an object hadn't been found yet due to deep seabed mud.
Flight tracking websites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude during its 13 minute flight and a previous flight the day before from Bali to Jakarta.
Passengers on the Bali flight reported terrifying descents and in both cases the different cockpit crews requested to return to their departure airport shortly after takeoff.
Lion has claimed a technical problem was fixed after the Bali fight.
Syaugi said a considerable amount of aircraft "skin" was found on the seafloor but not a large intact part of its fuselage as he'd indicated was possible Saturday.
He and other top officials including the military chief plan to meet with families on Monday to explain the search operation.
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 US lifted a decadelong ban in 2016. Lion Air is one of Indonesia's youngest airlines but has grown rapidly, 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.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
