Lion Air accident: a diver dies in search of victims in the wreckage of an airplane

Divers located the flight data recorder Thursday, but investigators said they had not been able to download any information about it because "there are broken parts" in the aircraft, said the Indonesian National Commission for Transportation Safety.

Haryo Satmiko, deputy head of the agency, said on Saturday that Boeing and the US National Transportation Safety Board were transporting special equipment to Indonesia to help local authorities extract this valuable information.

The recorder, usually called black box, contains information about the performance of the aircraft systems during the moments prior to the accident.

Authorities hoped that the discovery of the recorder would help explain why the new Boeing 737 crashed, making 189 casualties on board, but it's hard to know if they'll be able to recover from indices.

An aviation official familiar with the crash investigation had told CNN on Friday that the recorder was so immersed in the water that it was difficult to see the crash. obtain data.

A second aircraft, a cockpit voice recorder still missing, could also help investigators reconstruct the last moments of the new aircraft.

Divers in the Java Sea have searched the aircraft for fast currents and muddy waters for days without luck.

The head of the Indonesian National Agency for Search and Rescue, Muhammad Syauqi Syauqi, said his team had not heard the pings from the cockpit voice recorder. The voice recorder could be in the seabed about 35 meters from the surface and be masked by debris or hidden by mud.

Analysts believe that it is imperative to find the cockpit voice recorder to determine if the accident has consequences for other airlines that collectively operate thousands of Boeing 737 flights in the world every day.

"We need to know if there is a problem with Lion Air, a problem specific to this aircraft or if it is a more general problem for the 737s," said Geoffrey Thomas, editor of the agency. airline rating system Airlineratings.com.

Divers still combing through debris

The jetliner wheels recovered Friday and an aircraft engine turbine located at the bottom of the ocean are the largest debris found by divers.

Most of the wreckage of the plane remains at the bottom of the water and it is so upset that analysts say that recovery of the rest of the fuselage will probably be done by hand or with nets .

David Soucie, Aviation Safety Analyst for CNN, said that another daunting challenge for divers will be to identify and separate any part of the body from other debris.

"If you look at the insulation and the backs, the cushions can easily be mistaken for body parts and vice versa," Soucie said.

Only one victim has been identified

Flight 610 was scheduled to fly passengers between Jakarta and Pangkal Pinang on Bangka Island for one hour. Instead, it crashed 13 minutes after take-off. The pilots had asked to turn around but had not sent an emergency call.

At least 65 body bags have been collected since the start of the search and rescue operation, although each bag can hold the remains of more than one person.

Investigators will have to rely on DNA samples to identify the victims because of the condition and size of the found remains. The police have 181 DNA samples from the victims' families and are working with 272 human tissue samples.

Lisda Cancer, responsible for the identification of disaster victims, told reporters Friday that only one person had been identified so far – a woman confirmed by a fingerprint.

On Wednesday, authorities began bringing relatives to the port to identify the victims' personal belongings, which were stacked next to cushions and other debris that appeared to be coming from the plane.

Epi Syamsul Qomar, whose 24 year old son was in the air, broke down in tears when he recognized his son's shoe.

"I saw my son's black sneakers," he told CNN. "I've also seen his bank checkbook."

Aircraft problems reported by the pilot

The airliner had had technical problems the night before on another route, revealed passengers aboard this flight to CNN.