Yahoo NewsDebris and bodies have been found as the search for missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 takes a grim turn.
On Tuesday afternoon, Indonesian Civil Aviation Chief Djoko Murjatmodjo confirmed objects resembling a plane door and an emergency slide found in the sea were debris from the missing flight, which lost contact with Air Traffic Control travelling from Indonesia to Singapore over the Java Sea on Sunday morning.
Three bodies were recovered shortly after, the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency said.
AirAsia said 155 of those on board Flight QZ8501 were Indonesians, with three South Koreans and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France.
#BREAKING Plane spots 'shadow' on seabed believed to be AirAsia jet: Indonesia search chief
— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 30, 2014
The next stage of the search mission will focus on locating more passengers, the aircraft’s black box and recovering the body of the plane from the bottom of the sea.
Divers will be used by authorities to recover the plane, which is lying on the sea floor 30 metres down, Head of Search and Rescue Henry Bambang Soelistyo said.
A man faints in Surabaya as bodies are shown on local television. Photo: Twitter
Relatives of the 162 passengers on the missing flight hugged each other and burst into tears in Surabaya, where the plane departed from, as they watched footage showing a body floating in the sea on a television feed showing a press conference held by Search and rescue chief Bambang Sulistyo in Jakarta.
They hugged one another and continued crying until an AirAsia officer shouted, “This is crazy”, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
One man fainted and had to be taken out on a stretcher.
“There was a man swaying on the waves. After I looked at the photo carefully on my laptop, I understood it was a human body,” a lieutenant of the Indonesian Air Force told local media.
The AFP photographer on the search flight that spotted the plane’s debris said he had seen about 10 objects in the sea resembling a life raft, life jackets and long orange tubes, which were later confirmed to be from the missing aircraft.
Photo taken from an Indonesian aircraft over the Java Sea shows possible plane debris from the missing AirAsia flight pic.twitter.com/vh7mvBqdgZ
— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 30, 2014
The objects were seen 10 kilometres from the location the plane was last captured by radar.
At least 30 ships, 15 aircraft and seven helicopters have been looking for the jet carrying 162 people, said Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo.
An AFP photographer said he “spotted about 10 big objects and many more small white-coloured objects which we could not photograph”. Photo: AFP/Twitter
Before losing contact with Air Traffic Control, the AirAsia pilots had been worried about the weather and had sought permission to climb above threatening clouds.
Air traffic control could not say yes immediately as there was no room.
Six other airliners were crowding the airspace, forcing Flight 8501 to remain at a lower altitude.
Missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 was not far from the shoreline when it went missing between Tanjung Pandan and Pontianak. Photo: 7News
Only five minutes later, the jet had disappeared from the radar without issuing a distress signal.
The last communication from the cockpit to air traffic control was a request by one of the pilots to climb from 32,000 feet to 38,000 feet because of the weather.
The captain, Iryanto, had more than 20,000 flying hours, AirAsia said.
People who knew Iryanto recalled that he was an experienced military pilot, flying F-16 fighters before shifting to commercial aviation.
I guess this time “they” figured “they” should have some bodies for proof?
. . .
Had some on ice, left over from the last one, Cathleen. 😉