Civil Aviation Minister Alfred Manasseh has confirmed that the civilian divers contracted by FSM have retrieved the flight Data Recorder (Black Box) of the Air Niugini’s Boeing 737 aircraft that crash landed last Friday at Chuuk in FSM.
The Recorders will be transported to Port Moresby's AIC laboratory for data downloading and analysis.
Minister Manasseh further stated that the aircraft is on the seabed 30 meters below the surface of the Chuuk Lagoon.
“Due to the contamination of the water from leaking aircraft fuel, the search of the aircraft had been delayed until the contamination dispersed to a level safe for the divers.”
The diving will continue on Wednesday to recover the Cockpit voice recorder and other recording devices from the aircraft.
Meantime, the male passenger reported missing following the accident, was also discovered by the divers on Monday.
The divers conducted a further search of the P2-PXE and the surrounding area in the Chuuk Lagoon and found the man.
Air Niugini released this latest report Monday evening, saying its outreach team is in touch with the man’s family and arrangements are being made to repatriate his body.
Air Niugini stated that the circumstances surrounding this accident are now a matter for relevant authorities as they begin their task of investigating the events that led to the incident and the actions which followed.
The airline expressed sympathy to the man’s family.