Has Deal With Salvage Firm, To Start Work In July

It was a crash that took 102 lives that has yet to see closure for the families, as well as the aviation community.

Reuters reported that Indonesian budget carrier Adam Air is close to signing on with a salvage firm to retrieve the black box of Adam Air's ill-fated Flight 574, a Boeing 737-400.

As reported by ANN, Indonesian rescue teams searched for the missing Adam Air Boeing that went down New Year's Day.

Late January, the USNS Mary Sears, searching off the western coast of Sulawesi island, detected what the US Navy believed to be signals from the cockpit voice and flight data recorders of the aircraft, but those recorders were never retrieved, as ANN reported.

"We have a deal with US-based Phoenix International to retrieve the black box," Adam Air chief executive Adam Suherman told Reuters. "The plan will go ahead in early July."

He added, "Retrieving the black box would not only serve the interest of Adam Air but would serve the interest of the aviation community in general."

Experts said in January that retrieving the flight recorder, set up to give off a signal for 30 days to aid detection, may be difficult and it could be lying in waters as deep as 5,600 ft.

Locating the black box may be even more challenging as it may have shifted or may be buried under sediment.

The 17-year-old plane was heading from Surabaya, in East Java, to Manado in northern Sulawesi, when it vanished in bad weather. The plane made no distress call, although the pilot reported concerns over crosswinds.

Metal fragments, including the plane's tail section, were found on the bottom of the ocean floor January 12 and confirmed to be from the wreckage of an Adam Air 737, as ANN reported.

FMI: www.adamair.co.id, www.phnx-international.com