The pilots of the Indonesian airliner that plunged into the sea off Jakarta with 62 people aboard did not declare an emergency or report technical problems before the Boeing 737-500 went down, according to a report.
National Transportation Safety Committee investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said recordings of conversations between the crew of the Sriwijaya Air flight bound for Pontianak and air traffic control were routine.
“It’s like a normal conversation and nothing suspicious,” he told Agence France-Presse. “There’s no talk of an emergency or something like that.”
Preliminary data suggest it was “most likely” that the jet was intact when it hit the water Saturday, Utomo said, adding that “we don’t know at this stage” what caused the crash.
His comments came as divers searched for black boxes — cockpit voice and flight data recorders — that could be crucial to help explain why the aircraft went down with 62 Indonesians aboard, including 10 children.
Some of the 2,600 personnel
