Hunt for cockpit tapes halted

Crucial find: A box containing the flight data recorder retrieved from the Java Sea. — AP

Bad weather forced scores of divers to temporarily suspend their hunt for a crashed Indonesian jet’s cockpit voice recorder, as investigators worked to read critical details on a flight data device that had already been salvaged.

The two “black boxes” could supply key clues as to why the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 plunged about 10,000 feet (3,000m) in less than a minute before slamming into the Java Sea soon after take-off on Saturday, taking with it 62 people.