Indonesia finds Sriwijaya Air jet's cockpit voice recorder
Jakarta: Indonesian navy divers have recovered the cockpit voice recorder of a Sriwijaya Air jet that crashed into the Java Sea in January, killing all 62 people on board, officials said Wednesday.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said divers retrieved the cockpit recorder at about 08.00 pm. Tuesday local time, near where the flight data recorder was recovered three days after the accident.
The contents of the recorder were not immediately available. However, the device could help investigators determine what caused the Boeing 737-500 to nosedive into the ocean in heavy rain shortly after it took off from Jakarta on January 9.
If the voice recorder is undamaged, it might tell investigators what the pilots were doing or failing to do to regain control of the plane during its brief, erratic flight.
Searchers have recovered plane parts and human remains from an area between Lancang and Laki islands in the Thousand Island chain, just north of Jakarta. The flight data recorder tracked hundreds of parameters showing how the plane was being operated.
Most retrieval efforts ended about two weeks after the crash, but a limited search is continuing for the missing memory unit of the cockpit voice recorder, which apparently broke away from other parts of the device during the crash.
The bright orange voice recorder was taken to Jakarta and given to the National Transportation Safety Committee, which is overseeing the accident investigation.
We hope the KNKT could share information about what is contained in this VCR to improve our aviation safety, Sumadi said, referring to Indonesian acronym for the transportation committee.
The KNKT chairman, Soerjanto Tjahjono, said the device will be taken to the investigators' black box facility. It will take five to seven days to dry and clean the device and to download its data, he said.
Without the CVR...it would be difficult to determine the cause of the plane crash, Tjahjono said, We would disclose it transparently to avoid similar accidents in the future.
Rear Adm. Abdul Rasyid Kacong, the navy's western region fleet commander, said the voice recorder was buried under 1 metre (3 feet) of seabed mud at a depth of 23 metres (75 feet). Divers removed debris and carried out desludging operations to reach the voice recorder, he said.
Data from a preliminary investigation report, which didn't state any conclusions, showed that the plane's left engine's throttle lever moved backward on its own while the autopilot was engaged, reducing the power output of that engine before the jet plunged into the sea.
That report provided new details on persistent problems with an autothrottle on the 737-500 Sriwijaya Air jet and the airline's efforts to fix them. An autothrottle can be used by pilots to set the speed automatically, thereby reducing workload and wear on the engines.
The 26-year-old jet had been out of service for almost nine months because of flight cutbacks due to the pandemic before resuming commercial flights in December.
The disaster has reignited concerns about safety in the aviation industry, which has grown quickly along with the economy since the fall of dictator Suharto in the late 1990s. The US banned Indonesian carriers from operating in the country in 2007 but lifted that restriction in 2016, citing improved compliance with international aviation standards. The European Union lifted a similar ban in 2018.
Sriwijaya Air had had only minor safety incidents in the past, though a farmer was killed in 2008 when a plane went off the runway while landing due to a hydraulic issue.
In 2018, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet operated by Lion Air crashed shortly after taking off from the airport in Jakarta, killing 189 people. An automated flight-control system played a role in that crash, but the Sriwijaya Air jet did not have that system. (AP)
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War Far Away, Pain Right At Your Door
There is a war burning in West Asia — far from India's borders, far from our daily worries. But here is something nobody is telling you clearly — that war is quietly walking towards your kitchen, your house, your farm, and your factory. You may not see it coming. But you will feel it.
Let us talk simply, the way one neighbour explains to another.
West Asia — the region that includes countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran — is not just the world's petrol pump. It is also a massive warehouse of raw materials that India depends on heavily. India bought goods worth nearly ₹8.3 lakh crore from this region in 2025 alone. That is not a small number. That is the foundation of many things you use every single day.
Now, missile and drone attacks are hitting energy facilities in the Gulf. Ships are scared to sail. The Strait of Hormuz — a narrow sea passage through which a huge chunk of the world's oil and gas travels — is under serious threat. If that route closes, the impact will not just stop at petrol prices. It will go much deeper.
Your home could become costlier to build.
India gets 68% of its limestone from West Asia. Limestone is the main ingredient in cement. No cement, no construction. And even if cement is available, its price will shoot up. Gypsum — which is used for plastering your walls, making false ceilings, and giving your home that smooth finish — also comes 62% from the same region. If ships stop, your dream home project either stops or burns a bigger hole in your pocket.
Your food could become expensive too.
India imports about 65% of its sulphur from West Asia. Sulphur may not be something people notice in daily life, but it is used to make sulphuric acid, which is essential for producing phosphate fertilisers. Fertilisers feed our crops, and crops feed us. If sulphur supply is disrupted for a month or more, production of phosphate fertilisers in India could be affected.
At the same time, if LNG or sulphur supplies are disrupted for a month or more, India’s overall fertiliser production — including urea and phosphate fertilisers — could face disruptions, potentially affecting farmers in the coming season.
Less urea means farmers may struggle during the next sowing season. When farmers struggle, food production can suffer. And when food production falls, food prices rise — something households, especially those on tight budgets, feel immediately.
The steel in your city's roads and bridges is also at risk.
India gets nearly 59% of its Direct Reduced Iron — a key raw material to make steel — from West Asia. Steel is everywhere. It is in the beams of buildings under construction, in the infrastructure projects your city is waiting for, in the auto parts and machinery. Industry people are already saying that while alternative sources exist for materials like limestone and DRI, the real killer is the rising and unstable price of oil and gas. Most steel plants run on LPG and LNG. When gas prices go up, the cost of making steel goes up, and ultimately, that cost passes on to you.
Even the shine on your jewellery is at risk.
India's diamond cutting and polishing industry — which employs lakhs of workers, mostly in Gujarat — gets more than 40% of its rough diamonds from West Asia. If conflict disrupts that trade, those workers feel the pinch first. Jobs slow down. Incomes fall.
So what is being done?
India is already adjusting. Refiners are buying more oil from Russia at discounted prices. Fertiliser companies are looking at Southeast Asia for sulphur. Limestone can potentially come from Thailand or Vietnam. But these alternatives take time, cost more to ship, and cannot replace West Asia overnight.
The fertiliser sector has some breathing room for now since it is currently the off-season for farming. But experts are clearly warning — if disruption continues beyond one month, the next crop season will feel the squeeze. That means the farmer in Punjab, the vegetable grower in Maharashtra, the paddy cultivator in Andhra — all of them could face higher input costs with no guarantee of better prices for their produce.
There is a quiet truth here that needs to be said plainly. Wars do not stay in the places they start. They travel through trade routes, through shipping lanes, through price tags in your local market. This one is no different.
Every brick that costs more, every bag of fertiliser that gets delayed, every power bill that climbs higher — these are not just economic numbers. These are real burdens on real families who are already managing tight budgets, rising expenses, and uncertain futures.
The war may be far away. But its shadow is already falling on us — slowly, silently, and surely.
(Girish Linganna is an award-winning science communicator and a Defence, Aerospace & Geopolitical Analyst. He is the Managing Director of ADD Engineering Components India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany.)
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or position of the publication, its editors, or its management. The publication is not responsible for the accuracy of any information, statements, or opinions presented in this piece.
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