PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia—A tail section from the crashed AirAsia plane became the first major wreckage lifted off the seabed Saturday, two weeks after Flight 8501 went down, killing all 162 people on board.
The red metal chunk, with the word “Asia” written across it, was brought to the surface using inflatable balloons. It was not immediately clear whether the cockpit voice and flight data recorders — located in the plane’s rear — were inside this piece or had detached when the Airbus A320 plummeted into the sea Dec. 28. Their recovery is essential to finding out why it crashed.
The debris was hoisted from a depth of about 30 meters (100 feet), and local TV footage showed it resting on a ship.
Intermittent underwater ping-like sounds were picked up Friday about a kilometer (half a mile) from where the tail section was located, but it was unclear whether they were coming from the recorders.
