AirAsia flight QZ8501: Plane crash in Java Sea
BAD weather has caused yet more frustrating delays in the recovery mission of AirAsia flight QZ8501 victims’ bodies in the Java Sea.
AS rescuers pulled the seventh body from the AirAsia crash site, fears bad weather could shift other victims’ bodies to the shores of Borneo have forced rescue teams to man the coastline.
Strong waves had shifted bodies further east and they could be drifting towards the Kalimantan shores, of Borneo.
Indonesian Air Vice-Marshall Sunarbowo Sandi, mission coordinator of the search and rescue operations said Indonesian police and Armed Forces (TNI) ships had been deployed to wait by the coastline, the Straits Times reports.
His warning comes as soldiers acting as pall bearers carried coffins containing the first two bodies from AirAsia Flight QZ8501 into Indonesia’s Surabaya airport, from which the ill-fated plane departed.
The bodies were taken from an air force plane to a military ambulance to be transported to a hospital for examination and identification - but many exhausted families were left waiting for news as bad weather hampered search efforts.
Simple wooden coffins - numbered 001 and 002 - with purple flowers on top contained the first two bodies, which were sent from Pangkalan Bun to Surabaya for autopsies. The two victims were a woman wearing blue jeans and a boy. The other five bodies - three male and two female - will remain on a warship until the weather clears.
Officials had hoped to recover most of the bodies but rough conditions made it difficult for helicopters to fly over the area in the Java Sea where several corpses and debris from the Airbus A320-200 were found a day earlier.
“I continue to be humbled and touched by the incredible efforts and professionalism put forth by BASARNAS, Army, Navy, Air Force and Police of Indonesia,” said Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of AirAsia, in its latest statement.
“The search and rescue operations were unfortunately hampered by bad weather today but I am hopeful they will be able to resume the search tomorrow.”
AirAsia latest statement. "To date, recovered a total of seven remains". Updating: http://t.co/FtcUkQDUHK #QZ8501 pic.twitter.com/O0jWGVtbBB
— Matt Young (@MattYoung) December 31, 2014
Storms forced AirAsia search teams to suspend their operations early — just as Indonesian officials revealed sonar equipment had captured footage of the plane resting at the bottom of the Java Sea.
A total of seven bodies have now been recovered, including four males and three females, all completely intact.
National Search and Rescue Agency chief BambangSoelistyo said one of the female victims was wearing a flight attendant uniform.
He said 168 coffins had been prepared — although the official number of people on board Flight QZ 8501 is 162.
Many family members had planned to travel to Pangkalan Bun, 160 kilometres from the area where bodies were first spotted, to start identifying their loved ones. However, the manager of the Surabaya airport, Trikora Hardjo, later said the trip was cancelled after authorities suggested their presence could slow down the operation. Instead, some relatives gave blood for DNA tests and submitted photos of their loved ones along with identifying information such as tattoos or birthmarks that could help make the process easier.
Among them was Hadi Widjaja, 60, who was preparing a Muslim funeral for his son Andreas and daughter-in-law Enny Wahyuni.
“I am anxious to know if the rescuers have found their bodies. The president has said that they will do the best they can to find them,” Mr Widjaja told AFP.
“But if they really cannot find them, I will scatter flowers in the sea here as a way to say goodbye.”
Storms forced search teams to suspend their operations early today. Helicopters were later sent out as the weather cleared, but some returned again to the base in Pangkalan Bun, the town with the nearest airstrip to the crash site.
“For the safety reasons, we turned back,” helicopter pilot Tatang Onne Setiawan said.
“Besides the evacuation of the bodies, we also planned to search for bigger parts of the plane.”
Indonesain from the AirAsia flight has been found at the bottom of the Java Sea.
Mr Soelistyo said wreckage from the aircraft had been found using sonar equipment — but did not know yet if the plane is in one piece or broken up.
Earlier, the pilot who discovered the first three bodies from AirAsia flight QZ8501 said the victims were holding hands in the water.
Lieutenant Airman Tri Wobowo, who co-piloted one of the Hercules off the coast of Borneo, today said he saw up to eight bodies.
“There are seven to eight people. Three [of them] again hold hands,” he told Indonesian national newspaper Kompas.
RELATED: RELATIVES IN SHOCK AT HORROR FOOTAGE
RELATED: SECOND AIRASIA PLANE IN DRAMATIC INCIDENT
RELATED: FLYING IN ASIA: 5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
A report in London’s Daily Telegraph said an Indonesian fisherman, Mohammed Taha, 38, first spotted metal objects in the water, including ones that were red.
He saw them on Sunday but didn’t return home until the next day. He then learned of the AirAsia disaster.
“The largest was four metres long and two metres wide. They were red coloured with white silver. It looked like the AirAsia colours.”
He told police who then organised an aerial search which confirmed the objects, including a door, were from the plane.
Many local fishermen have helped with the search after being contacted by authorities soon after the plane vanished.
There were 155 passengers on board, with 137 adults, 17 children and 1 infant. Also on board were 2 pilots, 4 cabin crew and one engineer.
#BREAKING AirAsia confirms debris found is from flight #QZ8501. "Found in Karimata Straight". http://t.co/FtcUkQDUHK pic.twitter.com/5COJhUQKHf
— Matt Young (@MattYoung) December 30, 2014On behalf of all Malaysians, I extend my deepest condolences to the families of those on Air Asia Indonesia QZ8501. We share your sorrow.
— Mohd Najib Tun Razak (@NajibRazak) December 30, 2014
A backpack, food and children’s shoes has been found in the water by searchers.
AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes said he is experiencing an airline chief executive’s “worst nightmare”.
Speaking in Indonesia’s second-biggest city of Surabaya after meeting with distraught relatives of some of the 162 passengers, Fernandes said he “apologised profusely” for the accident.
“The passengers were on my aircraft and I have to take responsibility for that,” he said, adding that he was focusing on supporting the families.
“It’s an experience I never dreamt of happening and it’s probably an airline CEO’s worst nightmare,” Fernandes said on Tuesday.
An earlier statement from his company said employees of affiliate AirAsia Indonesia, which operated the crashed plane, had been sent to the site where debris was found and would fully co-operate in the investigation.
“There is at least some closure as opposed to not knowing what’s happened and holding out hope,” Fernandes told reporters.
He said the pilot of the ill-fated plane was “extremely experienced” with 20,000 hours of flying.
“There were some very unique weather conditions and let’s wait for the investigation to be concluded.” Out of the 162 passengers and crew on board, 155 were Indonesian.
“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 on-board QZ8501.”
Monsoonal weather continues to affect the area of the search site, which has been suspended for the night. Conditions are less than ideal, with thunderstorms in the area creating rough seas, with reports at least six inches of rain are expected to be dumped throughout the night.
“This type of extreme weather can result in catastrophic failure,” aircraft expert Anthony Roma told msnbc.
The plane was flying within a level five thunderstorm, while three other flights successfully traversed the same flight pattern as QZ8501.
“In this area there are storms a great deal of the time, aircraft fly all the time,” said Mr Roma.
After two days of searching, debris from parts of the aircraft, including an emergency exit door, luggage, oxygen tack and a life jacket, were found in the Karimata Straight between Sumatra, Java and Borneo, around 110 nautical miles south west from Pangkalan Bun.
Several corpses were spotted off Borneo island. Search and rescue teams were lowered on ropes from a hovering helicopter to retrieve the corpses, their efforts hindered by 2-meter-high (6-foot-high) waves and strong winds. They were recovered, swollen but intact, and taken to an Indonesian navy ship.
The ‘shadow’ of a plane was spotted on the seabed close to the debris.
Our sincere thoughts are with all those affected by the loss of @AirAsia Flight #QZ8501. 1/2
— Airbus (@Airbus) December 30, 2014We are dedicated to providing our full support to determine the cause of this tragic accident. http://t.co/chKWrcoSEH #QZ8501 2/2
— Airbus (@Airbus) December 30, 2014Graphics showing last location of #QZ8501 on Flightradar24 and location where debris and bodies have been found pic.twitter.com/DYtDmO2ZGg
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) December 30, 2014Our prayers are with families and friends of all those onboard #QZ8501. May you continue to #staystrong throughout this difficult time.
— Malaysia Airlines (@MAS) December 30, 2014Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir told AFP earlier that, according to naval radio, a warship had recovered more than 40 bodies from the sea. But he later said that report was a miscommunication by his staff. Reports indicate some bodies did not have life jackets on.
The debris was spotted just under 10 kilometres from when the flight was last seen on radar.
“At the present time, search and rescue operations are still in progress and further investigation of the debris found at the location is still underway,” the statement read.
“AirAsia Indonesia employees have been sent to the site and will be fully cooperating with BASARNAS, National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), and relevant authorities on the investigation.”
Several countries are helping Indonesia retrieve the wreckage and the passengers.
The United States announced it was sending the USS Sampson destroyer, joining at least 30 ships, 15 aircraft and seven helicopters in the search for the jet, said Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo.
A Chinese frigate was also on the way, while Singapore said it was sending two underwater beacon detectors to try to detect pings from the plane’s all-important cockpit voice and flight data recorders. Malaysia, Australia and Thailand also are involved in the search.
The tragic news was made worse when Indonesian television footage showed a body floating in the sea during aerial searches for the plane.
Pandemonium broke out at Juanda International Airport, at least two distraught family members were carried out on stretchers from the room where they had been waiting for news in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city and the takeoff point for the aircraft that disappeared during a storm on Sunday.
Many screamed and wailed uncontrollably, breaking down into tears while they squeezed each other. One middle-aged man collapsed and was rushed from the room on a stretcher.
“We are sorry to be here today under these tragic circumstances,” said Sunu Widyatmoko, Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia Indonesia, in AirAsia’s statement.
“We would like to extend our sincere sympathies to the family and friends of those on board QZ8501. Our sympathies also go out to the families of our dear colleagues.”
My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ 8501. On behalf of AirAsia my condolences ... http://t.co/OJGobL93cR
— Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes) December 30, 2014I am rushing to Surabaya. Whatever we can do at Airasia we will be doing.
— Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes) December 30, 2014In its statement, AirAsia Indonesia said it will be inviting family members to Surabaya, where a “dedicated team of care providers will be assigned to each family to ensure that all of their needs are met”.
“Counsellors, religious and spiritual personnel have also been invited to the family centre to provide any necessary services,” it read.
Earlier, Indonesia’s director general of civil aviation, Djoko Murjatmodjo, told AFP: “For the time being it can be confirmed that it’s the AirAsia plane and the transport minister will depart soon to Pangkalan Bun.”
“Based on the observation by search and rescue personnel, significant things have been found such as a passenger door and cargo door.
“It’s in the sea, 100 miles (160 kilometres) southwest of Pangkalan Bun,” he said, referring to the town in Central Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo.
A search for the aircraft has been underway since Sunday afternoon when it lost contact with Indonesian air traffic control.
The plane, with 155 passengers and seven crew, was less than an hour into a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore when it is believed to have encountered a violent thunderstorm.
Its pilots requested a change of flight path due to bad weather, just minutes before contact was lost.
The Herald Sun reports a Melbourne-based student was on-board the plane when it disappeared. Monash University student Kevin Alexander Soetjipto was travelling from Indonesia to Singapore with relatives when the plane vanished over the Java Sea.
Mr Soetjipto is from Malang in Indonesia and it is believed he was in Australia on a student visa.
With Rebecca Sullivan, Frank Chung, Debra Killalea, Andrew Koubaridis and Sherine Conyers.
Qantas pilot named as crash victim
A Qantas pilot has been named as one of three victims who died in a horror mid-air crash in Sydney on Saturday.
Five injured in gas explosion at campground
Five people have been injured in a gas explosion at a campground in South Australia, with two of them in a serious condition.
Seaplane ditches into ocean at holiday hotspot
An investigation is underway after a seaplane carrying five people ditched into the ocean at a popular tourist hotspot.