A large, dark object spotted on the sea bed is believed to be missing AirAsia plane QZ8501, an Indonesian official has said.
Bodies and debris were found in the
area near to where a sonar image is reported to have revealed the underwater
mass.
Ships and planes have been scouring the
Java Sea for the missing flight since Sunday, when it vanished with 162 people
on board during bad weather about 40 minutes into its flight from the
Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
Indonesian rescuers have recovered
various items, including luggage, and seven bodies floating in shallow waters
off Borneo.
“It's about 30 to 50 metres (100 to 165
feet) underwater,” Hernanto, an official with the search and rescue agency,
said of the sonar image.
Authorities in Surabaya were making
preparations to receive and identify bodies, including arranging 130 ambulances
to take the victims to a police hospital and collecting DNA from relatives.
“We are praying it is the plane so the
evacuation can be done quickly,” Hernanto said.
Most of the people on board were
Indonesians. No survivors have been found.
Officials said waves two to three
metres (six to nine feet) high and winds were hampering the hunt for wreckage
and preventing divers from searching the crash zone.
Among the bodies found on Wednesday was
a flight attendant.
The fully clothed bodies could indicate
the Airbus A320-200 was intact when it hit the water and support a theory that
it suffered an aerodynamic stall.
“The fact that the debris appears
fairly contained suggests the aircraft broke up when it hit the water, rather
than in the air,” said Neil Hansford, a former pilot and chairman of
consultancy firm Strategic Aviation Solutions.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said
his priority was retrieving the bodies.
“I feel a deep loss over this disaster
and pray for the families to be given fortitude and strength,” Widodo said in
Surabaya on Tuesday after grim images of the scene in the Java Sea were
broadcast on television.
Widodo said AirAsia would pay an
immediate advance of money to relatives, many of whom collapsed in grief when
they saw the television pictures from the search.
AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes
has described the crash as his “worst nightmare”.
About 30 ships and 21 aircraft from
Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and the United States
have been involved in the search.
Singapore said it was sending two
underwater beacon detectors to try to pick up pings from the black boxes, which
contain cockpit voice and flight data recorders.
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.
It was travelling at 32,000 feet (9,753
metres) and had asked to fly at 38,000 feet. When air traffic controllers
granted permission for a rise to 34,000 feet a few minutes later, they received
no response.
Online discussion among pilots has
centred 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.
Investigators are focusing initially on
whether the crew took too long to request permission to climb, or could have
ascended on their own initiative earlier, said a source close to the inquiry,
adding that poor weather could have played a part as well.
A Qantas pilot with 25 years of
experience flying in the region said the discovery of the debris field
relatively close to the last known radar plot of the plane pointed to an
aerodynamic stall, most likely due to bad weather. One possibility is that the
plane's instruments iced up, giving the pilots inaccurate readings.
The Indonesian pilot, a former air
force fighter pilot with 6,100 flying hours under his belt, was experienced and
the plane last underwent maintenance in mid-November, said the airline, which
is 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia.
Three airline disasters involving
Malaysian-affiliated carriers in less than a year have dented confidence in the
country's aviation industry and spooked travellers across the region.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went
missing in March on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and
crew and has not been found. On July 17, the same airline's Flight MH17 was
shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
On board Flight QZ8501 were 155
Indonesians, three South Koreans, and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia
and Britain. The co-pilot was French.
The AirAsia group, including affiliates
in Thailand, the Philippines and India, had not suffered a crash since its
Malaysian budget operations began in 2002.
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