This story is free to read.

Divers retrieve 1 black box from crashed AirAsia jet

Members of the National Transportation Safety Board inspect the portion of the crashed AirAsia Flight 8501 on the deck of rescue ship Crest Onyx at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. A day after the tail of the crashed AirAsia plane was fished out of the Java Sea, the search for the missing black boxes intensified Sunday with more pings heard. Members of the National Transportation Safety Board inspect the portion of the crashed AirAsia Flight 8501 on the deck of rescue ship Crest Onyx at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. A day after the tail of the crashed AirAsia plane was fished out of the Java Sea, the search for the missing black boxes intensified Sunday with more pings heard.

By Associated Press January 11, 2015 1 min read

PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia — An official says divers have retrieved one of the black boxes from the AirAsia plane that crashed more than two weeks ago into the Java Sea, a major breakthrough in the slow-moving hunt.

Henry Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, says the flight data recorder was brought to the surface by four divers early Monday morning.

He says the search continues for the cockpit voice recorder. Divers began to zero in on the site a day earlier after picking up intense pings from its beacons, but they were unable to get a visual on it due to strong currents and poor visibility.

The cockpit voice and flight data recorders are vital to understanding what brought Flight 8501 down on Dec. 28, killing all 162 people on board.