''Two big parts'' of AirAsia plane found: search chief

JAKARTA - Recovery teams have found two big parts of AirAsia Flight 8501, which crashed into the sea last weekend with 162 people on board, Indonesia's top search official said Saturday.

 

Search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo told reporters that the huge relief operation came across the objects in the Java Sea off the island of Borneo late on Friday night.

 

"With the discovery of an oil spill and two big parts of the aircraft, I can assure you these are the parts of the AirAsia plane we have been looking for," Soelistyo told reporters in the capital Jakarta.

 

He said the larger of the objects was around 10 metres by five metres (32 feet by 16 feet).

 

"As I speak we are lowering an ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) underwater to get an actual picture of the objects detected on the sea floor. All are at the depth of 30 metres," Soelistyo said.

 

He added however that a strong current was making it difficult to operate the ROV.

 

Rough weather in recent days has hampered the search for bodies and the fuselage of the Airbus A320-200, which disappeared from radar and crashed into the sea during a storm.
 

 

Indonesian military personnel carry the coffin containing the remains of Khairunisa Binti Haidar Fauzi, one of the flight attendants from the ill-fated jet

 

 

So far 30 bodies have been recovered in the search, which had been narrowed Friday to an area of 1,575 square nautical miles -- a tenth of the size of Thursday's search -- with 29 ships and 17 aircraft engaged in the operation.

 

Finding the plane's black boxes is crucial to determining the cause of the crash.

 

Meanwhile, the AirAsia plane  was flying on an unauthorised schedule, Indonesia's transport ministry said Saturday, adding it had now frozen the airline's permission to fly the route.

 

Flight 8501 crashed into the Java Sea early Sunday, at a flight time that had not been cleared by officials, said director general of air transport Djoko Murjatmodjo.

 

"It violated the route permit given, the schedule given, that's the problem," he told AFP.

 

"AirAsia's permit for the route has been frozen because it violated the route permit given."

 

He said the permit would be frozen until investigations were completed.

 

A statement from transport ministry spokesman J.A. Barata said AirAsia was not permitted to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on Sundays and had not asked to change its schedule.
 

 

Members of the Indonesia marines unload their diving equipment as they arrive at Pangkalan Bun air base

 

 

Search teams have narrowed their hunt for the plane's fuselage and remaining bodies from the crash of the Airbus A320-200, with foreign investigators helping to pinpoint its black boxes, crucial to determining the cause of the crash off the island of Borneo.

 

Rough weather has in recent days hampered the search for the plane, which is believed to be in relatively shallow water of around 25-32 metres (82-105 feet). So far 30 bodies and various items of debris have been recovered.

 

The search is now focused on an area of 45 by 35 nautical miles centred about 75 nautical miles southwest of Pangkalan Bun, a town in Central Kalimantan on Borneo.

 

The families of victims have been preparing funerals as the bodies recovered are identified in Surabaya, where a crisis centre has been set up at a police hospital with facilities to store 150 bodies.

 

Before take-off, the pilot of Flight 8501 had asked for permission to fly at a higher altitude to avoid a storm, but the request was not approved due to other planes above him on the popular route, according to AirNav, Indonesia's air traffic control.

 

In his last communication shortly before all contact was lost, he said he wanted to change course to avoid the menacing storm system.

AFP


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