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.
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