The passenger plane lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather on December 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
It was discovered to have plummeted in to the Java Sea, killing all 162 people on board.
Divers have since retrieved the cockpit voice recorder from the wreck, found close to where the flight data recorder was recovered from the bottom of the Java Sea on Monday.
Former pilot, traffic controller and airport director, Captain Desmond Ross said the two recorders, recovered just a day apart, will give investigators a critical insight into the plane's final moments.
Mr Ross told SBS the cockpit voice recorder would have recorded every sound from within the flight deck.
“From the moment it took off to the moment it crashed, we should hear everything that was said between the two pilots – every gong, whistle, bell, warning signal that went off,” he said.
“The flight data recorder is a little more complex… It will provide details on the speed, the altitude, the cabin pressure, the position of the control surfaces.
“All sorts of information that is critical to understanding what the aircraft was doing.”
Mr Ross said the data, which could take approximately a week to access, would allow investigators to recreate the flight in a simulator.
Dozens of Indonesian navy divers took advantage of calmer weather this week to retrieve the black boxes and now hope to find the fuselage of the Airbus.
Forty-eight bodies have been retrieved from the Java Sea and brought to Surabaya for identification. Searchers believe more bodies will be found in the plane's fuselage.
Full interview with aviation expert Captain Desmond Ross
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