There are strong indications that search teams have found AirAsia Flight QZ8501's black boxes, the company's outspoken CEO Tony Fernandes said on Sunday.
The search for the missing black boxes intensified Sunday with more pings from the black boxes were heard. The signals were detected over an area spanning from 1.6 miles to 2.4 miles from the location of the jet's rear, which was fished out of the Java Sea on Saturday. Officials cautioned it was too soon to know if the sounds were coming from the cockpit voice and flight data recorders.
The jet carrying 162 lost contact with air traffic control during thundery weather on Dec. 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. Fernandes has been a very public presence during the search. On Saturday, a senior official said sonar scan had detected the plane's fuselage.
IN-DEPTH
- Are The Black Boxes Inside? AirAsia Tail Surfaces
- 'Pings' Detected in AirAsia Jet Search: Investigators
- Divers Find AirAsia Jet's Tail Section on Sea Floor
— F. Brinley Bruton, with The Associated Press