Crews find 1 of 2 'black boxes' from crashed Lion Air flight

Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Indonesian authorities found one of the "black boxes" from Lion Air Flight 610 in the Java Sea, officials said Thursday.

Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency Basarnas said it found the flight data recorder after following signals sent by its locator beacon, the Jakarta Post reported.

The flight data recorder contains technical information about the flight, detailed by the plane's onboard flight systems. Crews are still looking for the cockpit voice recorder, which contains all words spoken in the cockpit for the flight's final 30 minutes.

The flight recorder should tell investigators where the plane flew, its altitude during the flight and other critical data. It would also detail any system failures.

Indonesian safety officials said it could take up to six months to examine the data.

Flight 610 departed Jakarta early Monday and crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff. All 189 people aboard are presumed dead. The Boeing 737 MAX 8, which had only been in service for a few months, was headed for Depati Amir Airport in Pangkalpinang, Bangka Belitung Islands.

Authorities have recovered some debris and remains of dozens of passengers. Although crews found the data recorder, they still haven't located the plane's fuselage or debris field.

"There are [signs] in several positions but none of them is the fuselage," Basarnas operation deputy Nugroho Budi Wiryanto told the Post Wednesday.

Lion Air, an Indonesian budget airline, said a technical problem occurred on the plane's previous flight but it was fixed "according to procedure."