Some crash victims found belted in seats
Jakarta/Singapore: Two large metal objects have been found in the search for the AirAsia airliner in the Java Sea, Indonesian officials said on Saturday, even as continuing bad weather held back efforts to hunt for the plane’s data recorders.
The objects were found at the bottom of the sea near Pangkalan Bun, head of Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency, Bambang Soelistyo, said. Soelistyo told reporters that the two objects represent the main part of the Airbus A320 that lost contact with air-traffic control on Sunday morning with 162 people on board.
Oil spills have also been detected in the area. “With the oil slick that we found and the discovery of the two big objects, I can confirm that this is the big part of the AirAsia plane we have been looking for all this time,” Soelistyo said, adding that a remotely operated vehicle would be sent to take pictures of the objects, though rough weather is hampering the deployment.
He said that the first object appeared to be more than 9 meters long, and the other was more than 7 meters long. The objects were found close to each other around 11 pm Friday in a priority area of the wider search zone, he said.
Search teams are currently deploying remotely operated vehicles to take a closer look at the wreckage before sending divers. But high waves and strong current are still hampering search efforts.
Recovery teams are encountering rough seas with waves of up to 4 metres, and winds of 20 to 30 knots, Malaysia’s Chief of Navy Abdul Aziz Jaafar said on Twitter.
An area, measuring 57 by 10 nautical miles, has been drawn for underwater search for the ill-fated Flight QZ8501.
Indonesian Agency for Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysics said the most probable cause of the crash could be icing in the cloud that damaged the plane engine.
Transport Ministry announced has suspended AirAsia’s Surabaya-Singapore route for a violation of an agreement. AirAsia Indonesia is only allowed to ply that route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, but had done so on Sundays as well, it said.
“As of January 2, 2015, the licence of Surabaya-Singapore (return) route to Indonesia AirAsia is temporarily frozen until after there is a result of evaluation and investigation,” Indonesia’s Transport Ministry spokesman, Julius Adravida Barata, said.
The suspension comes six days after AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed in the Java Sea en route from Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya to Singapore. No survivors have been found. “This is a temporary suspension,” said the ministry’s public communications head JA Batara in a statement, adding that the ban may be reconsidered upon completion of the investigation. Passengers who have already purchased tickets for the Surabaya-Singapore route have been advised to change their flight schedules.
The US Navy’s combat ship, USS Fort Worth, is expected to the search Saturday. Search agency Friday said that a total of 30 bodies had been recovered so far.
Meanwhile, after nearly a week of searching for the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501, rescue teams battling monsoon rains had their most successful day yet, more than tripling the number of bodies pulled from the Java Sea, some still strapped to their seats.
Of the 30 corpses recovered so far, 21 were found on yesterday, many of them by a US Navy ship, according to officials.
The Airbus A320 carrying 162 passengers and crew went down Sunday, halfway into a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, to Singapore.
Minutes before losing contact, the pilot told air traffic control he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic. It remains unclear what caused the plane to plunge into the sea.
The accident was AirAsia’s first since it began operations in 2001, quickly becoming one of the region’s most popular low-cost carriers.
Indonesian authorities on Saturday grounded AirAsia flights from Surabaya to Singapore, with the Transport Ministry saying the airline did not have a permit to fly on Sundays. AirAsia said it was reviewing the suspension.
Search teams aboard 13 aircraft and 30 ships expanded their hunt for victims and wreckage today, although 3-meter (10-foor) high waves continued to slow down the operation, said National Search and Rescue Agency Director of Operations Suryadi B Supriyadi.
The vessels included eight sophisticated navy ships from Singapore, Malaysia and the US equipped with sonars for scouring the seabed to pinpoint wreckage and the all-important black boxes.
“Many of passengers believed to be still trapped inside the plane’s fuselage and could be discovered soon,” Supriyadi said, “God willing, we would complete this operation next week.” (Agencies)