Worst fears are confirmed as bodies of AirAsia flight QZ8501 passengers pulled from water
- Herald Sun
- December 31, 2014
Airplane Debris Waters Shallow Enough for Divers
Family members of passengers
onboard the missing Malaysian air carrier AirAsia flight QZ8501 react
after watching news reports showing an unidentified body floating in the
Java sea. Picture: AFP / MANAN VATSYAYANA
TRAUMATISED relatives of the 162 people on board AirAsia Flight
QZ8501 have had their worst fears confirmed after human bodies — and
pieces of the plane were found floating in the Java Sea search zone.
A shadow on the seabed is also believed to be that of the AirAsia jet.Last night Indonesian officials were frantically transferring bodies from the sea off Borneo island on to an Indonesian navy ship.
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Inside the crisis-centre set up at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya. Picture: AFP / MANAN VATSYAYANA
Indonesian officials spotted several pieces of debris — resembling an emergency slide, plane door and other safety objects — near where the plane was last tracked by radar.
Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency chief also confirmed that planes also spotted what they believe is the AirAsia plane.
“God blessed us today,” Bambang Soelistyo told a press conference. “At 12:50 the air force Hercules found an object described as a shadow at the bottom of the sea in the form of a plane,” he said.
Soelistyo said the search was now being concentrated on the location where the “shadow” and debris had been found, around 160 kilometres (100 miles) southwest of the town of Pangkalan Bun in Central Kalimantan on Borneo island.
There were scenes of raw emotion as relatives deal with the shocking news. Picture: AFP/MANAN VATSYAYANA
“All elements in the areas and search and rescue personnel will be moved to the location,” he said.
Images were shown on TV of the bodies being recovered from the water prompting raw scenes of emotion from sobbing relatives of the 162 people aboard.
Haidar fauzi the father of one of the flight attendants, Khairunnisa Haidar Fauzi (22), spoke to media from Juanda Airport Surabaya.
“If it is true (the debris and body finding), we accept it. We know, indeed, that is the risk of becoming a flight attendant.”
“I agreed she should become a flight attendant. She has been a flight attendant for two years.”
AirAsia’s devastated boss Tony Fernandes apologised for the tragedy on social media.
“My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ 8501. On behalf of AirAsia my condolences to all. Words cannot express how sorry I am,” he tweeted.
Only an hour earlier National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) spokesman Yusuf Latif said the “significant finding” was possibly linked to the missing AirAsia jetliner.
The plane with 155 passengers and seven crew on board disappeared Sunday — halfway into what should have been a two-hour hop from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore — after encountering storm clouds.
An Indonesian military aircraft yesterday saw white, red and black objects, including what looked to be a life jacket, off the coast, about 170 kilometres south of Pangkalan Bun, he said. AirAsia’s jets are painted red and white.
Basarnas then dispatched at least one helicopter to retrieve the items and take them to the search and rescue coordination post on Belitung Island.
Indonesian air force official Agus Dwi Putranto said they had spotted about 10 big objects and many more small white-coloured objects, all of which they could not photograph.
“The position is 10 kilometres (six miles) from the location the plane was last captured by radar,” he said.
Families of missing AirAsia flight passengers react
“It is not really clear ... it could be the wall of the plane or the door of the plane,” Putranto said.
“Let’s pray that those objects are what we are really trying to find.”
An AFP photographer on the same flight that spotted the debris said he had seen objects in the sea resembling a life raft, life jackets and long orange tubes.
This came after Indonesian officials yesterday sent teams to investigate reports of smoke on an island in the area where the plane had gone missing.
Before the discovery, Basarnas expanded the search area for a third consecutive day.
Australia, Singapore and Malaysia had sent maritime surveillance aircraft and warships to assist, joining Indonesian planes, ships and scores of fishing boats scouring the waters for signs of the ill-fated aircraft.
Members of the Indonesian air force
show items retrieved from the Java sea during search and rescue
operations for the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501. Picture: AFP / Bay
ISMOYO
Australia yesterday doubled its contribution, sending a second RAAF P3 Orion plane with specialist search equipment.
Washington was deploying the USS Sampson to join the growing international effort, with the destroyer expected to arrive in the search zone Tuesday.
South Korea was also sending a P-3 reconnaissance plane with China sending a frigate and military aircraft.
Basarnas chief Bambang Soelistyo said an Indonesian navy ship reached the spot where a military craft reported two oil patches in the Java Sea east of Belitung island. It was not jet fuel, or even oil, but coral.
Meanwhile more details of the pilot’s last communication, in which he asked to ascend to avoid a menacing storm, have been revealed.
Within just ‘two to three minutes’ of its final communication with air traffic controllers at 6.16am AirAsia Flight QZ8501 was gone.
AirNav, Indonesia’s flight navigation service, yesterday explained that the pilot’s request could not approved due to heavy traffic on the popular route.
“The pilot requested to air traffic controllers to deviate to the left side due to bad weather, which was immediately approved,” said Wisnu Darjono, the safety director for Indonesia’s flight navigation service AirNav.
“After a few seconds the pilot requested to ascend from 32,000 to 38,000 feet but could not be immediately approved as some planes were flying above it at that time.”
“Two to three minutes later when the controller was going to give a clearance to a level of 34,000, the plane did not give any response.”
The pilot had originally made the request to fly at 34,000 feet at take off, but due to traffic it was not be approved.
“At that time there were 11 planes flying route M635,” Mr Darjono said, adding that 160 flights a day used the route to Singapore.
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