A photo taken from an Indonesian search and rescue aircraft over the Java Sea of debris from AirAsia flight QZ8501. Photo: Bay Ismoyo/AFP
The operation to recover the bodies of passengers and crew aboard the ill-fated AirAsia flight QZ8501 has begun after the wreckage of the plane was found during an aerial search on Tuesday afternoon.
Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia’s director general of civil aviation, announced on Tuesday afternoon that debris spotted in water near where the plane lost contact was from the missing jet.
Three bodies had already been evacuated from the aircraft, the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) said, shortly after the plane’s wreckage was found.
The operation will now concentrate on recovering the passengers, locating the black box and lifting the plane from the sea floor, after which the National Transportation Safety Committee would commence its investigation of the cause of the crash.
The head of search and rescue, Sulistiyo, grimly announced at about 2.45pm local time (6.45pm AEDT) that evidence had been mounting for almost four hours of the location of the downed jet.
He said the plane’s emergency door had been identified, as well as what looked like the shadow of the plane’s body under the water.
“We are now officially announcing that on the third day of the search, we found the debris,” Sulistyo said.
The plane is lying on the ocean floor at a depth of 25m to 30m, which will allow recovery authorities to utilise divers, Sulistyo said.
In the future, if they need more sophisticated equipment, they can do it, Sulistyo said, but Pangkalanbun would be designated the new centre for the operation.
As a live broadcast of the announcement was played to families in the room at Juanda airport, Surabaya, the tears flowed. Many held their heads in their hands or simply sat in stunned silence, holding each other and crying. One victims’ family member fainted as the presentation was drawing to a close.
Footage shown on television – and to the families – depicts Barsarnas crew being lowered from a helicopter to the water’s surface.
Several family members fell unconscious in the family’s room and one was rushed out, screaming hysterically, as the impact of the announcement sank in.
The hysterical scenes were prompted by the screening on live television inside the family’s room of a floating, near-naked body. News station TVOne later apologised for decision to air the image.
Haidar Fauzi, the father of a missing stewardess Khairunisa Haidar Fauzi, said he had seen the report and was “well prepared” for his daughter to be found dead.
“Now, even if there is hope, she’s a stewardess, she’s cabin crew. She would have rescued a passenger before saving herself,” he said.
Soelistyowati, an aunt of two the passengers on board, said: “We are in shock. We were faced with the possibility of a tragedy [before the confirmation]. But, even with the news of the wreckage found, their big sister and us still hopes she somehow managed to survive.”
An aircraft from Basarnas spotted the debris after 4pm AEDT near Pangkalanbun off the island of Borneo, a Basarnas spokesman, Andriandi, said. The area is quite close to where the plane first lost contact.
The news of the floating debris came after Indonesian authorities virtually doubled the search area on Tuesday morning to 156,000 square kilometres.
The final communications between the pilot of flight QZ8501 and air traffic control revealed the Airbus 320-200 captain, Iriyanto, had requested permission at 6.12am local time on Sunday to turn left to avoid a storm.
The request was granted and the plane turned left seven miles. The captain then requested to be able to climb saying: “Request to higher level,” according to AirNav standards and safety director Wisnu Darjono, as quoted by the Jakarta Post.
The air traffic controller responded: “Intended to what level?”, to which Iriyanto indicated he wanted to go to 38,000 feet. However there were six planes in the area at the time and so QZ8501 was told it could only go to 34,000 feet.
“But when we informed the pilot of the approval at 6.14am, we received no reply,” Mr Wisnu said.
To address concerns of the families about a lack of hard information, the agency has established a three-way video link between the Basarnas crisis centre in Jakarta, the Juanda airport families’ room and the department of transport situation room, also in Jakarta.
“That will hopefully ease the minds of the families because they can see directly what’s going on in Basarnas, so they’ll know that everybody is working hard in the search for their loved ones,” Mr Hernanto said.
AirAsia has offered families, and some journalists, a flight over the area on Wednesday, at the request of the families.
“They believe that, while the search and rescue [agencies] are working hard to try to locate the aircraft, they believe that with their presence, with their praying of the next of kin, that will help the search and rescue team to quickly find and locate the aircraft,” an AirAsia spokesman said.
source: smh.com.au
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