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INDONESIAN navy divers searching the ocean floor today recovered the black box from a Sriwijaya Air jet that crashed into the Java Sea at the weekend with 62 people on board.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the device was the plane’s flight-data or cockpit-voice recorder, but the recovery is expected to help investigators determine what caused the Boeing 737-500 plane to nosedive into the ocean shortly after takeoff from Jakarta on Saturday.
More than 3,600 rescuers, 13 helicopters, 54 large ships and 20 small boats are searching the area just north of Jakarta where Flight 182 crashed and have found parts of the plane and human remains in the water at a depth of 75 feet.
So far, the searchers have sent 74 body bags containing human remains to police identification experts who on Monday said they had identified their first victim, 29-year-old flight attendant Okky Bisma.
His wife, Aldha Refa, who is also a flight attendant for Sriwijaya Air, shared her grief in a series of posts on social media.
“My husband is a loving, devout and super kind man,” she wrote on Instagram. “Heaven is your place, dear ... be peaceful there.”
Anguished family members have been providing samples for DNA tests and police say results are expected in four to eight days.
National Police spokesman Rusdi Hartono said that about 53 samples for DNA testing have been collected but more are still needed, especially from parents and children of victims.