AirAsia Flight 8501: Seven bodies recovered
Seven bodies have been recovered from the sea, some fully clothed, which could indicate the Airbus A320-200 was intact when it hit the water. That would support a theory that it suffered an aerodynamic stall.
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Hide AdFour male and three female bodies were recovered, including a flight attendant.
Rescuers believe they have found the plane on the sea floor off Borneo, after sonar detected a large, dark object beneath waters near where debris and bodies were found on the surface.
Ships and planes had been scouring the Java Sea for Flight QZ8501 since Sunday, when it lost contact during bad weather about 40 minutes into its flight from Surabaya to Singapore.
Two bodies, in coffins bedecked with flowers, and marked 001 and 002, arrived by an air force plane in Surabaya.Most of the 162 people on board were Indonesians.
No survivors have been found.
Hernanto, head of the search and rescue agency in Surabaya, said rescuers believed they had found the plane on the seabed with a sonar scan in water 100ft-165ft deep.
The black box flight data and cockpit voice recorder have yet to be found.
Authorities in Surabaya were making preparations to receive and identify bodies, including arranging 130 ambulances to take 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.
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Hide AdHowever, strong wind and waves hampered the search and with visibility at less than half a mile, the air operation was called off. “We are all standing by,” said Dwi Putranto, heading the air force search effort in Pangkalan Bun on Borneo. “If we want to evacuate bodies from the water, it’s too difficult. The waves are huge and it’s raining.”
Indonesian president Joko Widodo said his priority was retrieving the bodies.
Relatives, many of whom collapsed in grief when they saw the first television pictures confirming their fears on Tuesday, held prayers at a crisis centre at Surabaya airport.
The plane was travelling at 32,000 feet and had asked to fly at 38,000 feet to avoid bad weather. When air traffic controllers granted permission for a rise to 34,000 feet a few minutes later, they received no response.
The pilots did not issue a distress signal.
A source close to the investigation said that radar data appeared to show that AirAsia Flight QZ8501 made an “unbelievably” steep climb before it crashed, possibly pushing it beyond the Airbus A320’s limits.
“So far, the numbers taken by the radar are unbelievably high. This rate of climb is very high, too high. It appears to be beyond the performance envelope of the aircraft,” he said.
The source, who declined to be named, added that more information was needed to come to a firm conclusion.
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.
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