AirAsia flight from Indonesia to Singapore missing

[Darth Penguin]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30614627

[Patty Smyth]

Still not much news even though CNN has had 24 hour coverage as usual.

Here we go again trying to find a needle in a haystack.

[abbasgirl]

Again?!!!

[Natalka]

Oh, boy... praying for everyone and their families.

[Natalka]

SURABAYA, Indonesia – More planes will be in the air and more ships on the sea Tuesday hunting for AirAsia Flight 8501 in a widening search off Indonesia that has dragged into a third day without any solid leads.


At least 30 ships, 15 aircraft and seven helicopters were looking for the jet carrying 162 people, said Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo. Most of the craft were Indonesian but Singapore, Malaysia and Australia contributed to the effort. Aircraft from Thailand planned to join Tuesday’s search.


He said the search area would be expanded to land areas, with four military helicopters dispatched just after sunrise near Pangkalan Bun on the western part of Borneo island and to smaller islands of Bangka and Belitung.

“Until now, we have not yet found any signal or indication of the plane’s whereabouts,” Soelistyo told The Associated Press, adding fishermen from Belitung island were also helping.


The U.S. Navy is also joining the search. It said in a statement that the USS Sampson, a destroyer, which was already on an independent deployment in the Western Pacific, and will arrive in the area later Tuesday. China announced that a navy frigate already on patrol in the South China Sea and aircraft to help the search.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1746258/se...-have-crashed/

[Natalka]

30 December 2014 Last updated at 07:51 ET

Officials say debris is missing plane


Indonesian officials have confirmed that bodies and debris found in the Java Sea off Borneo are from AirAsia flight QZ8501 that went missing on Sunday, a statement by AirAsia says.

SURABAYA, 30 DECEMBER 2014 – AirAsia Indonesia regrets to inform that The National Search and Rescue Agency Republic of Indonesia (BASARNAS) today confirmed that the debris found earlier today is indeed from QZ8501, the flight that had lost contact with air traffic control on the morning of 28th December 2014.

The debris of the aircraft was found in the Karimata Strait around 110 nautical miles south west from Pangkalan Bun.

The aircraft was an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC. There were 155 passengers on board, with 137 adults, 17 children and 1 infant. Also on board were 2 pilots, 4 cabin crews and one engineer.

At the present time, search and rescue operations are still in progress and further investigation of the debris found at the location is still underway. AirAsia Indonesia employees have been sent to the site and will be fully cooperating with BASARNAS, National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), and relevant authorities on the investigation.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30634081

http://qz8501.airasia.com/index.html

[Anna Michele]

So sad for the families so many children on board

[Natalka]

2 January 2015 Last updated at 21:49 ET

More bodies have been recovered from the Java Sea, five days after AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed, bringing the total found so far to 30, Indonesian rescue officials say.

Specialist equipment has arrived to aid the search for the plane itself and its "black box" flight recorders.
However officials said it could not be used on Friday because of high waves, Reuters reported.

On Saturday, Indonesian search and rescue chief Bambang Soelistyo said two large objects had been found in the search.

"As I speak we are lowering an ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) to get an actual picture of the objects detected on the sea floor. All are at the depth of 30 metres," Mr Soelistyo said.
The cause of the crash is not known yet.

"As of now, the results that I can confirm for you are that the number of dead bodies recovered is 30," the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, Mr Soelistyo, said on Friday.

Some were reportedly still strapped into their seats when they were found.

The aircraft's fuselage has still not been located, and it is thought most of the passengers could be inside.

"Waves were between three and four metres today, making it difficult to load bodies onto ships and [move them] between ships," Bambang Soelistyo told reporters.
Some vessels would search through the night, he added. "Tonight we are sending tug boats which should make the [body] transfers easier."

After bodies are recovered from the sea they are transported in numbered coffins for identification in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city.



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30658877

[Darth Penguin]

Tail of crashed plane found

Part of the tail of crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 has been found in the Java Sea, Indonesian searchers say.
The tail houses the "black boxes" - the voice and flight data recorders - which could give investigators clues as to the cause of the crash.
It was found in a secondary search area, lending weight to theories that strong currents have moved the debris.
The plane was lost en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore on 28 December, with 162 people aboard.
No survivors have been found.

[Natalka]

Divers recover 'black box' flight recorder

Indonesian divers have retrieved the flight data recorder of crashed AirAsia Flight QZ8501, say officials.

The head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, Bambang Soelistyo, said teams were still looking for the second device, its cockpit voice recorder.

Flight data recorders are usually housed inside the rear part of the plane.
They are designed to survive a crash and being submerged in water, and contain underwater locator beacons which emit so-called "pings" for at least 30 days.

The BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta says that as long as the device is undamaged and intact, it will provide key information including the altitude at which the plane was flying and whether it stalled or encountered a mechanical failure in the moments before it crashed.

Officials said the recorder would now be taken to Jakarta for analysis, which could take up to two weeks.
The international search for the fuselage and the remaining missing passengers and crew is continuing in the Java Sea.

Mr Soelistyo said all ships now "will be deployed with the main task of searching for bodies that are still or suspected to still be trapped underwater".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30773782

[Natalka]

Divers retrieve cockpit voice recorder

(Reuters) - Indonesian divers pulled out the cockpit voice recorder from the sunken wreckage of an AirAsia passenger jet on Tuesday, a key step towards determining the cause of the crash that killed all 162 people aboard.

The cockpit voice recorder, which retains the last two hours of conversation between the pilots and with air traffic controllers, was found close to where the flight data recorder was recovered from the bottom of the Java Sea on Monday.

Together the black boxes, which are actually orange, contain a wealth of data that will be crucial for investigators piecing together the sequence of events that led to the Airbus A320-200 plunging into the sea.
The cockpit voice recorder is expected to be sent to the capital, Jakarta, for analysis.
Investigators may need up to a month to get a complete reading of the data.

Forty-eight bodies have been plucked from the Java Sea and brought to Surabaya for identification. Searchers believe more bodies will be found in the plane's fuselage.
Government officials sought to reassure victims' families that divers would continue to search for bodies.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0KG09L20150113