FDR and CVR status - till end of January 16th
As far as I know:
There is an unofficial piece of tape - claimed to be from 8501 - containing pre-takeoff comms with the control tower in Surabaya. I ve been listening to that and the quality is not that good. Tried to make a transcript ( because I could not find one ), but hard to confirm what has been claimed, based on that. Could just have been another flight.
Both recorders have been delivered to KNKT/NTSC HQ and Lab in Jakarta. The FDR on Jan.12th, and CVR on the night of Jan. 13th or in the early morning thereafter.
First reported results:
"Safety committee-head Tatang Kurniadi said that 174 hrs of data had been downloaded from the FDR, and 2 hrs and 4 min from the CVR. The data must be converted into a usable format before the lengthy analysis process can begin.- AFP".
Timeframes for download and first analysis given during the last few weeks by KNKT ran from 2 days to 2 weeks. It depends on the quality of what is retrieved. The recorders looked good, so most expect a quick retrieval. But you never know.
A prelim report is often set at 1 month after the accident. But with this open water search and the relatively later finds, it would not suprise me if they would set that at 1 month after the FDR find. So somewhere mid February. All parties involved will want to make sure that what will be reported does not have to be retracted later. Saves us all from all kinds of conspiracy theories.
Expect the worst, but (we all) hope for the best.