By Malaysiakini
QZ8501 AirAsia’s Surabaya-Singapore flight carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members on board went missing on Sunday morning after taking off from Surabaya in Java, Indonesia, at 5.20am local time.
Search and rescue (SAR) efforts have confirmed it crashed in the Karimata Straits between Belitung Island and Kalimantan and are concentrating on efforts to find survivors.
Malaysiakini and KiniBiz bring you the live updates of information as it comes in.
_____________________________________________________________________
LIVE REPORTS
12.15pm: Two more bodies have been found in Pengkalan Bun waters, off Central Kalimantan, taking the total count of those discovered so far to nine, reports Indonesian portal Tempo.
The two will eventually be flown to a hospital in Surabaya, after the ones already discovered are brought to the Pengkalan Bun naval base from the ship.
Earlier, there was a conflicting report from Singapore’s Today, which said a total of 10 bodies have been recovered so far.
12pm: Malaysian navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar tweets that bad weather and sea condition are hampering the ongoing search and rescue operations.
He adds on his official Twitter account that the search area has been expanded to 13,500sqnm (150 x 90nm), double from yesterday’s 6,160sqnm.
11.40am: Another body from the debris site of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 has been recovered, reports New Straits Times.
“We cannot confirm whether the body is of a man or woman but I can tell you it is on it’s way here now,” Iskandar Airport commander Jhonson Henrico Simatpang is quoted as saying.
The body is being flown to Iskandar Airport at Pengkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan, the nearest naval base to the debris site.
9.42am: Singapore’s Today reports 10 bodies in total have been recovered from crash so far, citing Wall Street Journal.
8.38am: According to Reuters, a break in bad weather raises hopes today that divers would be able to investigate what is believed to be the sunken wreck of an AirAsia jet off Borneo and retrieve the black boxes that should explain the cause of the crash.
So far, at least seven bodies have been recovered from waters near where sonar has detected a large, dark object on the ocean floor, lying just 30-50 metres (100-165 feet) deep, but heavy seas have so far prevented divers from investigating it.
“They will try again this morning,” says Siahala Alamsyah, a naval officer involved in the search.
He says that on Wednesday night, bad weather had prevented a team of 47 Indonesian Navy divers from even flying out to warships at the crash site.
The plane’s black box flight data and cockpit voice recorder should help solve the mystery of the crash.
Investigators are working on a theory that it went into aerodynamic stall as the pilot climbed steeply to avoid a storm.
Bodies recovered from the Java Sea are being taken in numbered coffins to Surabaya, where relatives of the victims have gathered, for identification.
Authorities have been collecting DNA from the relatives to help identify the bodies.
Some of the bodies recovered so far have been fully clothed, including a flight attendant still wearing her AirAsia uniform. That could indicate the Airbus was intact when it hit the water and also support the aerodynamic stall theory.
Most of the 162 people on board were Indonesians. No survivors have been found.
You must be logged in to post a comment.