AirAsia Flight 8501: Searchers find bodies, debris off Borneo coast
Indonesian search authorities are now looking for the wreckage on the sea floor
Search teams for AirAsia Indonesia Flight 8501 have found floating debris and bodies off Borneo island from the crashed aircraft.
The Airbus A320 carrying 162 people went missing amid stormy monsoon weather early on Sunday morning local time.
The search area is about 100 nautical miles southwest of Pangkalan Bun, a city in Borneo that will serve as recovery headquarters.
Waves up to 3m high are hampering recovery efforts but Indonesia’s search and rescue agency says about four dozen divers are being moved into position for a major effort today.
The water depth in the area is 25-32m, making it possible to use divers to investigate wreckage on the sea floor, though its actual location has yet to be established
A ship with sonar search capabilities is also expected on site today to search for wreckage.
The debris is located 30-40km from the plane’s last known position and strong currents of 4-6 knots could have moved the debris far from the site of impact.
“We believe it’s still in the area,” says rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo.
He says the recovered bodies will be transferred to Pangkalan Bun and then to Surabaya – the plane’s departure point on Java – for identification.
Grieving relatives are at crisis centres in both Surabaya and Singapore, the plane’s destination.
AirAsia founder and chief executive Tony Frenandes is in Surabaya to support the families of passengers and crew members.
“I am absolutely devastated,” he said in a statement.
“This is a very difficult moment for all of us at AirAsia as we await further developments of the search and rescue operations but our first priority now is the wellbeing of the family members of those onboard QZ8501.”
Nevil Gibson
Wed, 31 Dec 2015
Wed, 31 Dec 2015
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AirAsia Flight 8501: Searchers find bodies, debris off Borneo coast
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