Indonesia crash: no indication of emergency from crew of Sriwijaya Air jet

Divers continue search for black boxes on seabed after tracking signals detected

Indonesian Navy divers sift through debris during a search and resque operation near the suspected crash site of Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 in the waters off Jakarta, near Tanjung Priok port. EPA

Navy sailors recover a piece of wreckage (bottom centre, in red) during recovery operations near Lancang Island. AFP

Retrieved wreckage from the ill-fated Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 aircraft is seen during recovery operations near Lancang Island. AFP

Relatives of Sriwijaya Air plane passengers arrive at the crisis center in Soekarno-Hatta International Airport following the report that Sriwijaya Air plane flight SJ182 lost contact shortly after taking off, in Banten, Indonesia. EPA

A number of family members of Sriwijaya Air SJ 182 passengers using mobile phones take pictures of their relatives' names from notes attached on the window of an office as they wait news on their loved ones, at Pontianak Supadio International Airport, in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. EPA

National Transportation Safety Committee chairman Suryanto Cahyono (C) speaks to the media about Sriwijaya Air flight SJY182 at the Soekarno-Hatta international airport in Tangerang. AFP

A Navy sailor stands guard as the KRI Gilimanuk (531) warship prepare to leave for a search and rescue operation for the Sriwijaya Air flight SJY182 from the Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta. AFP

Navy sailors prepare the KRI Gilimanuk (531) warship to leave for a search and rescue operation for the Sriwijaya Air flight SJY182 from the Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta. AFP

Relatives of Sriwijaya Air plane passengers arrive at the crisis center in Soekarno-Hatta International Airport following the report that Sriwijaya Air plane flight SJ182 lost contact shortly after taking off, at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia. EPA

Indonesian Police divers check their gear before embarking on the search and rescue operation for Sriwijaya Air flight SJ 182, which lost contact with air controllers shortly after take-off in Jakarta, Indonesia. GETTY IMAGES

People are seen at a temporary crisis centre organised in the domestic terminal of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, after Sriwijaya Air plane flight SJ182 lost contact after taking off, in Tangerang, near Jakarta, Indonesia. REUTERS

A woman cries at the flight SJ 182 Crisis Center at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, near Jakarta, Indonesia. Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182, a 26-year-old Boeing Co. 737-500 with 62 people aboard, went missing after losing contact with Indonesia’s aviation authorities shortly after takeoff from Jakarta. Photographer: Bloomberg

Medics and officials at the flight SJ 182 Crisis Center at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, near Jakarta, Indonesia. BLOOMBERG

People are seen at a temporary crisis centre organised in the domestic terminal of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, after Sriwijaya Air plane flight SJ182 lost contact after taking off, in Tangerang, near Jakarta, Indonesia. REUTERS

Relatives of passengers on board missing Sriwijaya Air flight SJY182 wait for news at the Supadio airport in Pontianak on Indonesia's Borneo island, after contact with the aircraft was lost shortly after take-off from Jakarta. AFP

Airport staff set up a crisis centre for Sriwijaya Air flight SJY182 at the Soekarno-Hatta international airport in Tangerang near Jakarta. AFP

Indonesian military is seen at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. EPA

An aviation security officer uses a phone as he stands outside Sriwijaya Air customer service at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Reuters

Airport officials install barriers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport after Sriwijaya Air plane flight SJ182 with more than 50 people on board lost contact after taking off, according to local media, in Tangerang, near Jakarta. Reuters

An Indonesian soldier walks at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport after Sriwijaya Air plane flight SJ182 with more than 50 people on board lost contact after taking off, according to local media, in Tangerang, near Jakarta, Indonesia. Reuters

This radar image shows the flight path of Indonesian Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 before it dropped off radar. Flightradar24.com via AP

Officials are seen at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. EPA

Indonesian soldiers are seen at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport after Sriwijaya Air plane flight SJ182 with more than 50 people on board lost contact after taking off, according to local media, in Tangerang, near Jakarta, Indonesia. Reuters

This aerial shot taken from an Indonesian Air Force plane shows oil slick and debris floating on the water near the site where Sriwijaya Air passenger jet is thought to have crashed near Jakarta, Indonesia. AP Photo

Indonesian Navy divers show parts of an aircraft recovered from the water. AP Photo

Indonesian investigators examine body bags with human remains and debris from Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 to be examined by investigators in Jakarta, Indonesia. Getty Images

Investigators inspect debris found in the waters off Java Island around where a Sriwijaya Air passenger jet crashed, at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesian divers on Sunday located parts of the wreckage of the Boeing 737-500 in the Java Sea, a day after the aircraft with dozens of people onboard crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta. AP Photo

Indonesian rescue members carry what is believed to be the remains of the Sriwijaya flight SJ182 which crashed into the sea, at Jakarta International Container Terminal port in Jakarta, Indonesia. Reuters

President Director of Sriwijaya Air Jefferson Irwin Jauwena speaks to the media during a press conference at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Indonesia. AP Photo

There was no indication of an emergency call from the crew of the Indonesian passenger jet that crashed into the sea at the weekend, an investigator said.

A recording of conversations with air traffic control pointed to routine exchanges, and there was no communication as the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 plunged about 3,000 metres in less than a minute into the Java Sea off Jakarta, Nurcahyo Utomo of Indonesia’s National Transport Safety Committee said on Monday.

“It’s like a normal conversation and nothing suspicious,” he told news agency AFP. “There’s no talk of an emergency or something like that.”

The jet vanished minutes after taking off from Jakarta during heavy rain. Divers are scouring the seabed for the plane’s data recorders, which were detached from the tail of the aircraft when it went into the sea.

There were 62 Indonesian passengers and crew aboard the half-full flight, including 10 children.

The search so far has yielded plane parts and human remains but no sign of survivors.

Signals from the jet’s black boxes – the cockpit voice and flight data recorders – were picked up between Lancang and Laki islands in the Thousand Island chain north of Jakarta’s coast.

Officials said they have marked the area from which the sounds were emitted.

About 2,600 rescue workers in more than a dozen helicopters, 53 navy ships and 20 boats have been searching for survivors since Sunday.

Parts of the plane were found in the water at a depth of 23 metres, leading rescuers to continue searching the area.

Bagus Puruhito, chief of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, said divers using “ping locator” equipment were looking for an object detected beneath 20 metres of seabed mud.

The cockpit voice recorder holds conversations between pilots, and the data recorder tracks electronic information such as airspeed, altitude and vertical acceleration. When found, they will be taken to port and handed to the National Transport Safety Committee.

Soerjanto Tjahjono, the committee’s chairman, said that once found, it would take three to five days to dry and clean the devices and download the data. More time will needed for analysis of the information, “depending on the complexity of the problem”.

Mr Tjahjono said the debris was concentrated in one area, while a mid-air explosion would have caused it to be spread over a large area.

“It broke apart naturally upon impact with water ... there is no indication of unnatural destruction or explosion so far,” he told The Associated Press news agency. “However, this still has to be confirmed by reading the black boxes.”