Cockpit Instruments Found at Indonesia Crash Site

May 16, 2012

Search teams have found some cockpit instruments in the wreckage of a Russian passenger jet that slammed into a cliff atop a dormant Indonesian volcano.

But National Transportation Safety Commission chief Tatang Kurniadi said they have found the emergency locator transmitter but not the voice-and-data recorder. The “black box” data could help explain what caused the deadly crash.

Joint teams of Indonesian and Russian experts continued to comb through debris at the bottom of a 1,500-foot (500-meter) ravine on Tuesday afternoon.

The Sokhoi Superjet is Russia’s first passenger jet model since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago. It was being demonstrated for potential buyers when it slammed into the jagged, mist-shrouded cliff last Wednesday. It had 45 people on board.