Indonesian rescuers have been pulling out bodies and wreckage from the sea off the coast of Borneo.
Indonesian rescuers searching for the missing AirAsia plane carrying 162 people pulled bodies and wreckage from the Java Sea off the coast of Borneo yesterday, December 30, 2014, Reuters reported. Navy officials said that 40 bodies had been recovered as dusk fell. The BBC reported that searchers had found what they think is the missing plane's slide. Search operation head Bambang Soelistyo said he was 95 per cent certain the objects shown were from the plane, adding that a shadow was spotted under water which appeared to be in the shape of a plane, BBC said. Indonesia Civil Aviation Chief Djoko Murijatmadjo reportedly said things like the passenger door and cargo door had been found with reports indicating that they had been taken away by helicopter for tests.
Flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact with air traffic control early on Sunday, December 28, 2014 during bad weather on a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. Reuters said pictures of floating bodies were broadcast on television and relatives of the missing gathered at a crisis center in Surabaya wept with heads in their hands.
About 30 ships and 21 aircraft from Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and the United States have been involved in the search of up to 10,000 square nautical miles. The plane, which did not issue a distress signal, disappeared after its pilot failed to get permission to fly higher to avoid bad weather because of heavy air traffic, officials said. Pilots and aviation experts said thunderstorms, and requests to gain altitude to avoid them, were not unusual in that area. According to the airlines official, the Indonesian pilot was experienced and the plane last underwent maintenance in mid-November. Online discussion among pilots has centered on unconfirmed secondary radar data from Malaysia that suggested the aircraft was climbing at a speed of 353 knots, about 100 knots too slow, and that it might have stalled. On board Flight QZ8501 were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain. The co-pilot was French.
