Search Teams Detect 'Pings' Near AirAsia 8501

Indonesian search and rescue teams reported detecting a "pinging" sound coming from the wing tail of AirAsia flight 8501, suggesting that the important black box remains intact or near the plane's wing.

According to CNN, search and rescue teams are hopeful that "pings" recently detected by sonar will lead them to the all-important black boxes, which record flight data and voices inside the cockpit as well as the cabin. Investigators are hopeful that the data boxes will provide information on what caused AirAsia flight 8501 to crash into the sea on December 28 with 162 people on board.

In an attempt to discover the black boxes, which are kept in the plane's tail wing, teams of divers are going to attempt to pull the wing tail out of the ocean using inflatable balloons and a crane.

According to CNN, search teams are unsure if the black box remains intact in the tail wing or if it has been freed. Officials were hesitant to confirm that the "pings" are coming from the black boxes, as sonar has detected a series of pings since it began looking for the plane almost two weeks ago that have led to dead ends.

Officials told Reuters that it seems to be increasingly likely that the black box and wing tail became separated after the crash.

"We detected signals about 1 km away from the location of the tail," search and rescue agency coordinator S.B. Supriyadi recently told reporters.

"Reports from the field confirm that pings are from the black box, because once the search team were out of a 500 m range, they could no longer hear it," he added.

"Tomorrow we will continue searching by air. We will add ships to the search. We will deploy divers to investigate more objects that have been detected but not yet identified."