Indonesia finds cockpit voice recorder of crashed Lion Air jet
Jakarta, Jan 14: Navy divers have located the cockpit voice recorder of a Lion Air jet that crashed into the Java Sea in October, Indonesian officials said Monday, in a possible boost to the accident investigation.
Ridwan Djamaluddin, a deputy maritime minister, told reporters that remains of some of the 189 people who died in the crash were also discovered at the seabed location.
"We got confirmation this morning from the National Transportation Safety Committee's chairman," he said.
A spokesman for the Indonesian navy's western fleet, Lt Col Agung Nugroho, said divers using high-tech equipment found the voice recorder beneath 8 meters (26 feet) of seabed mud. The plane crashed in waters 30 meters (98 feet) deep.
The 2-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after taking off from Jakarta on October 29, killing everyone on board.
The cockpit data recorder was recovered within days of the crash and showed that the jet's airspeed indicator had malfunctioned on its last four flights.
If the voice recorder is undamaged, it could provide valuable additional information to investigators.
The Lion Air crash was 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.
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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SC stays Telangana HC order granting one-week transit anticipatory bail to Pawan Khera
New Delhi (PTI): In a setback to Congress leader Pawan Khera, the Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Telangana High Court order granting him one-week transit anticipatory bail in a case registered for levelling allegations against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's wife.
A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and A S Chandurkar issued notice to Khera and others seeking their responses on the plea filed by the Assam government challenging the Telangana High Court order.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Assam government, told the bench that Khera moving Telangana High Court for bail in a case registered in Assam was a "complete abuse of process" and this would be a case of "forum choosing".
The bench, while issuing notice on the plea, said that operation of the high court order would remain stayed.
It posted the matter for hearing after three weeks.
On April 10, the high court granted one-week transit anticipatory bail to Khera with certain conditions and gave him a week to file an application before the court concerned.
The Congress leader had, on April 5, in a press conference alleged that Assam CM's wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, has multiple passports and foreign property, which were not declared in the chief minister's election affidavit for the April 9 Assembly polls in that state.
The Sarmas had rejected the allegations as false and fabricated.
The case against Khera was registered at the Guwahati Crime Branch Police Station under several sections of the BNS sections, including 175 (false statement in connection with an election), 35 (Right of private defence of the body and of property) and 318 (cheating).
