An initial analysis of cockpit voice recordings has found no evidence that terrorism, hijacking or another crime caused the crash last month of Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501, investigators said Tuesday.

“There are no indications of terrorism,” said Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator from Indonesia’s National Transport Safety Committee. “There were no voices of other people apart from those of the pilots.”

The transport safety committee has been analyzing the aircraft’s "black box" recorders, which search crews pulled last week from the floor of the Java Sea. The aircraft crashed Dec. 28 with 162 passengers and crew members, all of whom are presumed dead.

Investigators did not detail what was said in the aircraft’s final moments but said that a full transcript of the cockpit recordings was not yet completed.

“The rule is that if we find indications of a crime, we will hand over the investigation to the police,” Nurcahyo said.

The committee’s lab in Jakarta is also examining the flight data recorder, which collects information on the aircraft’s electronic systems during a flight.

Investigators said a preliminary report into the crash would be released Jan. 28. Weather is believed to have played a role but analysts were also looking into whether a mechanical or other failure caused the 6-year-old Airbus A320 to go down after it encountered storm clouds midway through a two-hour flight from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore.

(los Angeles Times)