Strong winds thwart bids to locate jet’s black boxes

Strong currents and blinding silt thwarted an attempt by divers to find AirAsia Flight 8501’s black boxes, which they hope are still located in the recently discovered tail of the plane.

The flight data and cockpit voice recorders, which are crucial to helping determine what caused the jet to go down with 162 people aboard on December 28, are located in the rear of the aircraft.

A day after an unmanned underwater vehicle spotted the plane’s tail, partially buried in the sea floor, divers were unable to make it past choppy waters and 1m visibility, said National Search and Rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo.