Indonesia Authorities Recover First Black Box From Crashed Airplane.

The Indonesia aviation authorities have revealed that the first black box from the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 airplane that crashed over the weekend has been recovered.

Indonesian transport minister Budi Karya Sumadi told a live television briefing that the box had been found — after the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 plunged about 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) in less than a minute before slamming into the Java Sea on Saturday.

An AFP reporter on a navy ship said investigators started picking up strong signals from an area where they were searching, with divers able to retrieve the box in about an hour from the wreckage-littered seabed.

So far authorities have been unable to explain why the 26-year-old plane crashed just four minutes after takeoff.

Sumadi added officials believe the cockpit voice recorder is nearby that of the flight data recorder.

“We strongly believe it’ll be found soon,” he said.

Black box data — which records information about the speed, altitude and direction of the plane as well as flight crew conversations — helps explain nearly 90 percent of all crashes, according to aviation experts.