Pings detected in hunt for black boxes

Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia

SIGNALS believed to be from the black box data recorders of crashed AirAsia Flight 8501 were detected on Friday, Indonesian authorities said, offering the strongest lead that could explain the disaster.

However, more of the bad weather that has plagued the 13-day search for the doomed plane stopped divers from quickly tracking the ping signals to the black boxes, and frustrated efforts to lift the plane's tail from the floor of the Java Sea.

"A ship detected the pings. The divers are trying to reach them," said S. B. Supriyadi, a National Search and Rescue Agency director stationed at the search headquarters in the town of Pan…