Indonesian rescuers searching for an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people pulled bodies and wreckage from the sea off the coast of Borneo yesterday, prompting relatives of those on board watching TV footage to break down in tears.
Indonesia AirAsia’s Flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact with air traffic control early on Sunday during bad weather on a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
The Indonesian Navy said 40 bodies had been recovered. The plane has yet to be found.
Photo: Reuters
“My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ8501,” airline CEO Tony Fernandes tweeted. “On behalf of AirAsia, my condolences to all. Words cannot express how sorry I am.”
The airline said in a statement it was inviting family members to Surabaya, Indonesia, “where a dedicated team of care providers will be assigned to each family to ensure that all of their needs are met.”
Images of floating bodies were broadcast on TV and relatives of the missing gathered at a crisis center in Surabaya wept with heads in their hands. Several people collapsed in grief and were helped away.
Photo: EPA
“You have to be strong,” Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini told relatives. “They are not ours, they belong to God.”
A navy spokesman said a plane door, oxygen tanks and one body had been recovered and taken away by helicopter for tests.
“The challenge is waves up to three meters high,” Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency head Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo said, adding that the search operation would go on all night.
About 30 ships and 21 aircraft from Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and the US have been involved in the search.
The plane, which did not issue a distress signal, vanished after its pilot failed to get permission to fly higher to avoid bad weather because of heavy air traffic, officials said.
Pilots and aviation experts said thunderstorms and requests to gain altitude to avoid them are not unusual in that area.
The Indonesian pilot was experienced and the plane last underwent maintenance in the middle of last month, the airline said.
The aircraft had accumulated about 23,000 flight hours in about 13,600 flights, according to Airbus.
Online discussion among pilots has centered on unconfirmed secondary radar data from Malaysia suggesting the aircraft was climbing at a speed of 353 knots (653.8kph), about 100 knots too slow, and may have stalled.
The plane, whose engines were made by CFM International — co-owned by General Electric and Safran of France — lacked real-time engine diagnostics and monitoring, a GE spokesman said.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a