AirAsia plane with 162 on board missing en route to Singapore

[Animalize]

Search finds bodies of two S. Korean victims in AirAsia crash

Published: 2015-01-11 20:14
Updated: 2015-01-11 20:14

BANGKOK-- The bodies of a South Korean couple killed in the recent crash of an AirAsia flight have been found, authorities here said Sunday, adding that the couple's 11-month old daughter is still missing.

According to officials from the Korean Embassy here and local search and rescue workers, the bodies of Park Seong-beom, 37, and his 36-year-old wife, Lee Gyeong-hwa, have been identified.

The initial identification was based on the victims' dental records and clothing. A DNA test is now under way with its outcome expected in two to three days, they said.

The couple was among 162 passengers and crew members aboard AirAsia flight QZ8501 that vanished shortly after its takeoff from the Indonesian city of Surabaya on Dec. 28 while en route to Singapore.

So far, the bodies of 48 victims have been found, while 32 of them have been identified. (Yonhap)

 

[Animalize]

11 January 2015 Last updated at 09:55 ET

AirAsia QZ8501: 'Black box' flight recorders 'found'

Investigators walk near a section of the tail of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 passenger plane in Kumai Port, near Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan (11 January 2015)

Indonesian divers may have located the flight recorders of missing AirAsia flight QZ8501, the head of the search and recovery operation has said.

Bambang Sulistoyo said he believed they had been found - and divers would try to retrieve them on Monday.

They are buried on the seabed underneath the aircraft's debris, officials say.

The possible discovery comes amid intense efforts to find the main fuselage of Flight QZ8501.

It disappeared in bad weather on 28 December with 162 people on board.

An Indonesian rescue helicopter flies over a ship as divers search for the missing AirAsia plane in the Java Sea - 9 January 2015

The aircraft was flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore and is lying 30m (98ft) below the surface of the Java Sea.

Three Indonesian ships had detected signals from two different locations about 3.5km (2 miles) from where the aircraft's tail was discovered, Co-ordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Indroyono Soesilo said.

"The two are close to each other, just about 20 metres [apart],'" Mr Soesilo said. "Hopefully, they are the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder."

AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes tweeted on Sunday that he had been "led to believe" that the recorders had been found.

But Mr Fernandes said that his "main concern" was recovering bodies from the aircraft's fuselage.

Earlier he tweeted: "Let's hope today is a major breakthrough day and we can find main fuselage."

An official said earlier that a large object resembling the plane's body had been found in a sonar scan of the search area in the Java Sea.

But Supriyadi, operations co-ordinator for Indonesia's search-and-rescue agency, later told the BBC's Indonesian service that reports that the fuselage had been found had not been confirmed.

Supriyadi has said that if the main body of the plane is found, the first priority of search teams will be to remove the remains of victims.

A team of divers had been sent to investigate, he added, but up until recently poor weather conditions had once again been hampering the search efforts.

Rescue workers have been pulling bodies and wreckage from the sea but progress has been slow. At least 48 bodies have been retrieved so far.

The cause of the crash is unknown but the plane had encountered bad weather and asked for a flight path change before communication was lost.

The flight data recorders are usually housed inside the rear part of the plane.

They are designed to survive a crash and being submerged in water, and contain underwater locator beacons which emit signals for at least 30 days.

Finding them has been one of the top priorities for search teams as they provide crucial clues from the last moments of a flight before it came down.

 

[Animalize]

Black box from doomed AirAsia flight QZ8501 recovered from seabed

PUBLISHED : Monday, 12 January, 2015, 11:31am
UPDATED : Monday, 12 January, 2015, 2:24pm

Associated Press

An Airbus investigator walks near part of the tail of the AirAsia QZ8501 passenger plane. Photo: Reuters

Divers retrieved one of the black boxes Monday from the AirAsia plane that plummeted more than two weeks ago into the Java Sea, a major breakthrough in the slow-moving hunt to recover bodies and wreckage.

The flight data recorder was found under part of the plane’s wing and brought to the surface early in the morning, said Henry Bambang Soelistyo, head of the national search and rescue agency.

Divers began zeroing in on the site a day earlier after three Indonesian ships picked up intense pings from the area, but they were unable to see it due to strong currents and poor visibility, said Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, operation coordinator at the national search and rescue agency.

He earlier said the black box was lodged in debris at a depth of about 30 meters (100 feet), but Soelistyo did not provide additional details on the discovery.

Searchers will continue to scour the seabed to try to locate the other black box, the cockpit voice recorder. They are vital to understanding what brought Flight 8501 down on Dec. 28, killing all 162 people on board.

The flight data recorder will be taken to Jakarta, the capital, for analysis. It could take up to two weeks to download its recorded data, said Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator at the National Committee for Safety Transportation.

A section of the tail of AirAsia QZ8501 passenger plane is seen on the deck of the ship Crest Onyx. Photo: Reuters

Officials recovered the aircraft’s tail on Saturday, the first major wreckage excavated from the crash site. They were hopeful the black boxes were still inside, but learned they had detached when the plane crashed into the sea.

Search efforts have been consistently hampered by big waves and powerful currents created by the region’s rainy season. Silt and sand, along with river runoff, have created blinding conditions for divers.

So far, only 48 bodies have been recovered. Many believe most of the corpses are likely still inside the main cabin, which has yet to be located.

Three more bodies were identified Sunday, including Park Seongbeom, 37, and his wife, Lee Kyung Hwa, 34, from South Korea, said Budiyono, who heads East Java’s Disaster Victim Identification unit and, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.

He said they were discovered Friday on the seabed, still strapped to their seats. Their baby has not yet been found, but the infant’s carrier was still attached to the man.

The last contact the pilots had with air traffic control, about halfway into their two-hour journey from Indonesia’s second-largest city, Surabaya, to Singapore, indicated they were entering stormy weather. They asked to climb from 32,000 feet to 38,000 feet to avoid threatening clouds, but were denied permission because of heavy air traffic.

Four minutes later, the plane dropped off the radar. No distress signal was sent.

 

[Animalize]

AirAsia plane exploded as it hit sea, says Indonesia, as black box recovered

Flight data recorder retrieved and cockpit voice recorder from flight QZ8501 located but still stuck on floor of Java Sea

Agencies
The Guardian, Monday 12 January 2015 03.34 GMT

An Airbus investigator walks near part of the tail of the AirAsia QZ8501 passenger plane in Kumai Port, near Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia. Photograph: Darren Whiteside/Reuters

A team of Indonesian navy divers has located both black boxes from an AirAsia airliner that crashed two weeks ago, which is believed to have exploded as it hit the sea.

Indonesian officials announced on Monday that the first black box, the flight data recorder, had been retrieved from the Java Sea for analysis. Hours later they said the cockpit voice recorder had been located but not yet brought to the surface.

Flight QZ8501 crashed on 28 December on its way from Indonesia’s second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people on board.

The plane lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather less than halfway into its scheduled two-hour flight.

“At 7:11, we succeeded in lifting the part of the black box known as the flight data recorder,” Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters at a news conference. The data recorder was found under the wrecked wing of the plane.

Later his colleague Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, the agency’s operation co-ordinator said the cockpit recorder had been located, but was stuck under heavy wreckage, which divers were working to lift.

Officials hope the black boxes will reveal the cause of the crash. The national weather bureau has said seasonal storms were likely a factor.

S B Supriyadi, a director with the national search and rescue agency, said that initial analysis of the wreckage so far recovered indicated that the plane exploded on impact with the water.

“It exploded because of the pressure,” he told reporters in Pangkalan Bun town on Borneo island, the search headquarters.

“The cabin was pressurised and before the pressure of the cabin could be adjusted, it went down – boom. That explosion was heard in the area.”

Investigators said the flight data recorder would most likely be taken to the capital, Jakarta, for analysis and that it could take up to two weeks to download the data.

However, the information could be accessed in as little as two days if the devices are not badly damaged.

Soelistyo did not provide any details of the condition of the flight data recorder.

Over the weekend, three vessels detected “pings” that were believed to be from the black boxes’ emergency locator transmitter. But strong winds, powerful currents and high waves hampered search efforts.

Indonesian navy divers took advantage of calmer weather in the Java Sea on Monday to retrieve the flight recorder and search for the fuselage of the Airbus A320-200.

Forty-eight bodies have been retrieved from the Java Sea and searchers believe more will be found in the plane’s fuselage.

Relatives of the victims have urged authorities to make finding the remains of their loved ones the priority.

“All the ships, including the ships from our friends, will be deployed with the main task of searching for bodies that are still or suspected to still be trapped underwater,” Soelistyo said, referring to the multinational force helping with the search and recovery effort.

Indonesia AirAsia, 49% owned by the Malaysia-based AirAsia budget group, has come under pressure from authorities in Jakarta since the crash.

The transport ministry has suspended the carrier’s Surabaya-Singapore licence for flying on a Sunday, for which it did not have permission. However, the ministry has said this had no bearing on the crash of flight QZ8501.

President Joko Widodo said the crash exposed widespread problems in the management of air travel in Indonesia.

Separately on Sunday, a DHC-6 Twin Otter operated by Indonesia’s Trigana Air crashed on landing at Enarotali Airport in Paniai, Papua.

Strong winds caused the aircraft to roll over, domestic news website Detik.com reported, with no injuries to the three crew members on board. The plane was not carrying any passengers.

 

[Animalize]

AirAsia jet 'exploded on impact'

AFP
January 13, 2015, 5:18 am

Flight data recorder retrieved from crashed AirAsia jet: official The cockpit voice recorder stores radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit. Photo: AFP

Indonesian divers Monday retrieved the flight data recorder of the AirAsia plane that went down in the Java Sea with 162 people on board, a potential breakthrough in efforts to discover what caused the crash.

The second black box, the cockpit voice recorder, was spotted by divers a short distance from the first but they had not yet managed to retrieve it because it was trapped under wreckage, officials said.

They also gave new dramatic details of the accident, saying a rapid change in pressure caused the plane to "explode" as it hit the water.

Navy divers brought the flight data recorder to the surface early in the morning, said national rescue chief Bambang Soelistyo, after a fortnight-long frustrating search often hampered by bad weather.

"We succeeded in bringing up part of the black box that we call the flight data recorder," Soelistyo told reporters in Jakarta.

S.B. Supriyadi, a director with the rescue agency, said efforts would resume Tuesday to recover the second recorder, which was about 20 metres from the first and trapped under a wing.

He told reporters in Pangkalan Bun on Borneo island, the search headquarters, that giant balloons might be used to raise the wing so that the device could be retrieved.

The flight data recorder monitors information such as airspeed and heading, while the cockpit voice recorder stores radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit. Both are located near the rear of the plane and designed to survive underwater.

Flight QZ8501 crashed on December 28 on a short journey from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. Indonesia's meteorological agency has said stormy weather likely caused the Airbus A320-200 to go down but a definitive answer is impossible without the data recorders.

After a lengthy search, rescuers on Sunday detected "ping" signals from the recorders' emergency transmitters close to what was initially thought to be the main body of the plane.

However Indonesian military chief Moeldoko told reporters aboard navy ship the KRI Banda Aceh that the main cabin, which is believed to contain most of the victims, had not yet been found. Just 48 bodies have so far been recovered.

- Exploded on impact -

Officials said they believe the flight data recorder is in good condition and it was being flown to Jakarta on Monday. Indonesia's National Transport Safety Committee said it would undergo a lengthy analysis in the capital, with the help of a team of experts including from France and manufacturer Airbus.

The committee has said a preliminary report on the accident will be produced within a month, and a final report after a year.

Supriyadi said initial analysis of the wreckage so far recovered indicated that the plane broke apart on impact with the water.

"It exploded because of the pressure," he said.

"The cabin was pressurised and before the pressure of the cabin could be adjusted, it went down -- boom. That explosion was heard in the area."

The search has involved US, Chinese and other international naval ships.

The tail of the plane, with its red AirAsia logo, was lifted out of the water on Saturday using giant balloons and a crane. It was brought by tugboat on Sunday to a port near Pangkalan Bun.

All but seven of those on board the flight were Indonesian.

The bodies of a South Korean couple were identified on Sunday, but their 11-month-old baby remains unaccounted for.

The other foreigners were one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one Briton and a Frenchman -- co-pilot Remi Plesel. Their bodies have not been recovered.

While the cause of the crash is unknown, the disaster has once again placed Indonesia's chaotic aviation industry under scrutiny.

Indonesian officials have alleged Indonesia AirAsia did not have a licence to fly the route on the day of the crash, although the airline rejects the claim.

Indonesia's transport ministry quickly banned AirAsia from flying the Surabaya-Singapore route.

On Friday it suspended dozens more routes operated by five other domestic airlines for similar licence violations.

 

[Animalize]

AirAsia explosion theory 'not true'

Date January 13, 2015 - 3:29PM
Jewel Topsfield
Fairfax foreign correspondent

The flight data recorder was retrieved from the wreckage of the AirAsia plane. Photo: AFP

Jakarta: A leading Australian aviation expert has cast strong doubt over conjecture that AirAsia flight QZ8501 may have exploded due to changes to air pressure in the cabin before plunging into the ocean.

Associate Professor Geoff Dell, the leader of accident investigations and forensics at Central Queensland University, said he could not think of any circumstances that would create enough differential air pressure across the fuselage of the plane to cause an explosion.

And the head of Indonesia's national transportation safety committee, Tatang Kuniadi, told Fairfax Media the theory was "not true" and he had admonished the official responsible for the speculation.

Foreign investigators examine the tail of the AirAsia flight QZ8501 in Kumai on Monday after debris from the crash was retrieved from the Java sea. Photo: AFP

AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea on December 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore.

All 162 passengers and crew on board were killed.

Late on Monday night Supriyadi, operations coordinator for the national search and rescue agency Basarnas, told reporters the wreckage indicated that the plane likely "experienced an explosion" before hitting the water due to a significant change in air pressure.

He said the left side of the plane seemed to have disintegrated, pointing to a change in pressure that could have caused an explosion.

Supporting this possibility, Mr Supriyadi said, was the fact that fishermen in the area had reported hearing an explosion and saw smoke above the water.

But Mr Kurniadi said Mr Supriyadi had "simply jumped to conclusions".

"It is just his guess. There is too much speculation. I already spoke with him and said let us do our own jobs. Basarnas' job is to find and evacuate victims while ours is to find out the cause of the incident".

Professor Dell said the so-called explosion the witnesses heard could have been the sound of the aircraft breaking the sound barrier as it plunged downwards.

"In my experience that's much more common than some phantom cabin pressure problem," he said. "I can't foresee a mechanism in any circumstance that would cause enough differential pressure that would rupture the fuselage as an initiating event."

Professor Dell said the most likely explanation remained that the plane had been caught in ferocious storms. "From what's in the public domain, that's probably the most likely," he said.

"People don't realise the violence of wind shears and vertical wind speeds upwards of 100 miles (160 kilometres) an hour that occur within thunderstorm cells. Airliners aren't designed to withstand that, which is one of the reasons aviators would always want to avoid flying into them."

Professor Dell said another possible scenario was that the pitot heads (air pressure sensing devices) could have frozen if their heaters had failed or were not switched on, which meant the aircraft systems and the pilots could have been provided with incorrect airspeed information.

"In such circumstances, the pilots could have made wrong decisions or inadvertently taken detrimental action. In similar circumstances in the past, pilots have lost control or inadvertently caused catastrophic dam age to the aircarft in the recovery attempt.

"There are many potential possibilities that the current available information would support. The only way to establish which one of the scenarios is true is by looking at the evidence from the flight recorders and recovering and analysing the physical evidence from the wreckage."

On Monday the flight data recorder was retrieved from the wreckage. The cockpit voice recorder has also been excavated from the ocean and is on the Banda Aceh warship, MetroTV reported on Tuesday. The 24 hour news station also quoted the Ministry of Transportation saying a large AirAsia object had been located 30 metres below the water.

However Mr Kurniadi told Fairfax Media the investigation and analysis was expected to take up to 12 months.

He said he thought the flight data recorder was in good condition.

"But even if the physical condition is poor the memory is normally good because the black box is designed in such a way that it survives very bad conditions," he said.

Flight QZ8501 was operated by Indonesia AirAsia, of which 49 per cent is owned by AirAsia and the remaining 51 per cent by Indonesian shareholders.

With Karuni Rompies, Reuters

 

[Animalize]

AirAsia Flight QZ8501: Divers find cockpit voice recorder on wreck of doomed passenger jet

Jan 13, 2015 06:45
By Anthony Bond

Investigators hope it will be a key step in finding out why the plane crashed into the sea, killing 162 people

Getty / Reuters

Divers have retrieved the cockpit voice recorder from the wreck of the doomed AirAsia passenger jet which crashed into the sea killing 162 people.

Indonesia AirAsia’s Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather on December 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia’s second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore.

The cockpit voice recorder, which retains the last two hours of conversation between the pilots and with air traffic controllers, was found close to where the flight data recorder was recovered from the bottom of the Java Sea on Monday.

When asked if the so-called black box was found, Santoso Sayogo, an investigator at the National Transportation Safety Committee, told Reuters: "We can confirm".

Together the black boxes, which are actually orange, contain a wealth of data that will be crucial for investigators piecing together the sequence of events that led to the Airbus A320-200 plunging into the sea.

The cockpit voice recorder was on board an Indonesian navy vessel and expected to be sent to the capital, Jakarta, for analysis, MetroTV said, quoting a transport official.

Investigators may need up to a month to get a complete reading of the data.

The AirAsia group’s first fatal accident took place more than two weeks ago, but wind, high waves and strong currents have slowed efforts to recover bodies and wreckage from the shallow waters off Borneo island.

Dozens of Indonesian navy divers took advantage of calmer weather this week to retrieve the black boxes and now hope to find the fuselage of the Airbus.

Forty-eight bodies have been plucked from the Java Sea and brought to Surabaya for identification. Searchers believe more bodies will be found in the plane’s fuselage.

"Our main task is to find the victims," Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters before heading to Surabaya to meet families of the victims.

"Even if both (black boxes) are found, it doesn’t mean that our operation is over."

Relatives of the victims have urged the authorities to make finding the remains of their loved ones the priority.

"Even if the search has to last for a month, we are still hoping to find them," said Lioni, who lost four family members in the plane crash. "If they can find even one (of my family members), we would feel a little bit relieved."

 

[Animalize]

Slim chance of recovering all bodies from AirAsia flight

Date January 13, 2015 - 8:15PM

Jewel Topsfield
Fairfax foreign correspondent

Officers move the flight data recorder into a protective case for transportation. Photo: AFP

The head of the Indonesian rescue agency searching the ocean for bodies from the doomed AirAsia flight QZ8501 has reportedly said he is unsure all victims will be recovered.

VIVAnews news portal says Bambang Soelistyo, the head of national search and rescue agency Basarnas, told a parliamentary hearing the likelihood was only 20 per cent.

"As operation commander I still have hope (to find all victims)," VIVAnews said Soelistyo told the hearing on Tuesday.

But he said the period of search and rescue operation had been extended twice and there must be an end to it.

He said he would travel to Surabaya to give an explanation to the victims' families.

Meanwhile, MetroTV quoted the Ministry of Transportation saying a large AirAsia object had been located 30 metres below the water.

Rescuers remain hopeful large numbers of bodies will be found still strapped in their chairs when the plane's main body is found.

Divers have so far found 48 of the 162 Indonesian, South Korean, Malaysian, Singaporean, French and British people who died when the plane crashed into the Java Sea on December 28.

The cockpit voice recorder has also been excavated from the ocean and is on the Banda Aceh warship, MetroTV reported on Tuesday.

Flight QZ8501 was operated by Indonesia AirAsia, of which 49 per cent is owned by AirAsia and the remaining 51 per cent by Indonesian shareholders.

With Karuni Rompies

 

[Animalize]

Indonesia investigators hope black box recorders will provide quick answers to AirAsia crash

Analysts expect to resolve the mystery behind the crash from information in its flight and cockpit recorders in a few days, although a full report will not be released for at least a year

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 14 January, 2015, 2:10pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 14 January, 2015, 3:56pm

Officials display the cockpit voice recorder of AirAsia flight QZ8501 at the National Transportation Safety Committee office in Jakarta on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

Indonesian investigators began on Wednesday examining the black box flight recorders from the AirAsia passenger jet that crashed more than two weeks ago, and hope to unlock initial clues to the cause of the disaster within days.

Divers retrieved the flight data and cockpit voice recorders this week from the sunken wreckage of flight QZ8501, which lost contact with air traffic control halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia’s second biggest city Surabaya to Singapore. All 162 people on board were killed.

The recorders were lifted from the bottom of the Java Sea and sent to the capital, Jakarta, for analysis. Both were found to be in relatively good condition.

“In one week, I think we will be getting a reading,” said Mardjono Siswosuwarno, head investigator for the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC).

The so-called black boxes – which are actually coloured orange – contain a wealth of data that will be crucial for investigators piecing together the sequence of events that led to the Airbus A320-200 plunging into the sea.

Data from the flight data recorder took only 15 minutes to download, but investigators will now need to analyse up to 25 hours of information and several thousand flight parameters covering things such as flying speed, altitude, fuel consumption, air pressure changes and inputs to the aircraft’s controls.

“We are feeling relieved but there is still a lot of work ahead of us to analyse it,” said Siswosuwarno.

Investigators were expected later on Wednesday to begin downloading data from the cockpit voice recorder, which retains the last two hours of conversations on the flight deck and between the pilots and to air traffic controllers.

As is standard procedure, the NTSC will file a preliminary report, which will be made public, to the International Civil Aviation Organisation within 30 days. A final report on the crash is not expected to be published for at least a year, Siswosuwarno said.

Indonesian air force personnel manoeuvre a helicopter as they resume the search for the fuselage of the ill-fated AirAsia flight in Pangkalan Bun on Tuesday. Photo:

After the recovery of the two black boxes, Indonesia is expected to scale back search and rescue operations in the Java Sea.

But government officials sought to reassure victims’ families that efforts to retrieve the remains of their loved ones would continue.

“I have told [the families] that ending the main operation does not mean ending the search,” Bambang Soelistyo, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters in Surabaya late on Tuesday.

Forty-eight bodies have been plucked from the Java Sea and brought to Surabaya for identification. Searchers believe more bodies will be found in the plane’s fuselage, which has yet to be located.

“We understand if the search becomes smaller ... but the bodies have to be found,” said Frangky Chandry, whose younger brother was on the plane. “We want to bury our family. That’s what we want.”

 

[Animalize]

Fuselage of crashed AirAsia jet ‘located in Java Sea’

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 14 January, 2015, 7:00pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 14 January, 2015, 10:25pm

Agence France-Presse in Pangkalan Bun

An image released the Republic of Singapore Navy shows the fuselage of the AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea in late December. Photo: AFP

A Singaporean navy ship on Wednesday located the main body of the AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea late last month, believed to be the resting place of most of the 162 victims.

Flight QZ8501 crashed on December 28 in stormy weather during a short, routine flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

[video=youtube;HHmpNzgyMRM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHmpNzgyMRM[/video]

The discovery of the fuselage is the latest boost in a slow-moving search operation often hampered by bad weather. It followed the recovery this week of both the plane’s black boxes, which contain vital information to determine what caused the crash.

“The MV Swift Rescue has located the fuselage of the AirAsia plane in the Java Sea,” said Singapore’s Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen in a Facebook post, adding that Indonesian search and rescue officials had been informed.

“The accident is a tragic event resulting in the loss of many lives. I hope that with the fuselage located, some form of closure can come to the families of the victims to ease their grief.”

His post was accompanied by underwater photos of what appeared to the fuselage. The words “now” and “everyone” are visible, apparently from AirAsia’s motto “Now Everyone Can Fly” painted on the plane’s exterior.

Indonesia’s national search and rescue chief Bambang Soelistyo confirmed that the fuselage had been found by the Singaporean ship and said divers would head to the wreckage on Thursday.

“It’s dark today, its not possible to dive, so we will dive tomorrow. The main focus is to find victims in the fuselage,” he told reporters.

“If it’s difficult we will lift [the fuselage] up either in part or in whole.”

Finding the main body of the Airbus 320-200 has been seen as vital, as most of the victims are believed to be still trapped inside. Just 48 bodies have so far been recovered.

The Singapore navy ship was part of a huge international hunt for the plane, which also included US and Chinese ships.

Vital black boxes

The so-called black boxes – which are actually orange in colour – have been flown to Jakarta, where Indonesia’s National Transport Safety Committee is leading a probe into the accident, helped by experts from countries including France and the United States.

The country’s meteorological agency has said bad weather may have caused the crash but only the black boxes will be able to provide definitive answers.

Investigators have started retrieving data from the recorders and converting it into a usable format, which will take around a week, before the lengthy analysis process can begin, committee head Tatang Kurniadi said.

The flight data recorder holds a wealth of information about every major part of the plane, with details such as the jet’s speed and the direction it was heading in, while the cockpit voice recorder stores radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit.

The committee has said a preliminary report on the accident will be produced within a month, and a final report after a year.

At a port near Pangkalan Bun, the search headquarters on Borneo island, Indonesian investigators and their French counterparts also began examining the tail, which was lifted out of the water at the weekend.

Before take-off, the plane’s pilot had asked for permission to fly at a higher altitude to avoid a major storm but the request was not approved due to other planes above him on the popular route.

In his last communication, the experienced pilot said he wanted to change course to avoid the storm. Then all contact was lost, about 40 minutes after take-off.

All but seven of those on board the flight were Indonesian. The foreign nationals were from South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France.

 

[Animalize]

Bad weather, visibility prevent search of AirAsia fuselage

By FADLAN SYAM
Jan. 15, 2015 9:42 AM EST

A student of Petra Christian University holds a flower near the memorial walls of their friends who were on board of the ill-fated AirAsia Flight 8501, at their campus in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015. A Singaporean navy ship has located the fuselage of the crashed AirAsia plane in the Java Sea, Singapore's defense minister said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)

PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AP) — Bad weather and poor underwater visibility on Thursday prevented Indonesian navy divers from searching inside the large chuck of AirAsia jet wreckage that is believed to be the fuselage.

At least 15 divers descended to the seabed at a depth of 28 meters (92 feet) to examine the piece of wreckage spotted Wednesday, calculate its weight and search for bodies. They were unable to do so because of the weather and sea conditions, said Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, the operation director at the National Search and Rescue Agency.

He said it appeared that some parts of the fuselage have been covered with silt. When bodies are found, the divers would try to put them in individual body bags, which rescuers on ships would then hoist to the surface, he said.

The 30-meter-long (100-foot-long) section of the plane body with a wing attached was sighted on the bottom of the Java Sea by a Singaporean navy ship.

Only 50 bodies have been recovered since the plane disappeared from radar and crashed in the sea Dec. 28 en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. Most of the 162 victims are Indonesian.

Rescuers believe that most of the bodies are inside the main fuselage.

Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said the large piece of wreckage would be lifted from the seabed after the search for bodies was no longer considered effective.

The plane's flight data and cockpit flight recorders were retrieved earlier this week and will be key to learning the cause of crash. Bad weather is a suspected factor.

Nine aircraft and 10 ships conducted search operations Thursday. Two U.S. ships and one from Singapore have left, Soelistyo said.

The destroyer USS Sampson and combat ship USS Fort Worth left for other assignments after contributing more than 650 search hours for the AirAsia flight.

"The U.S. was extremely proud to assist" the search effort, U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Robert O. Blake said. "We are all pleased with the recovery of the black boxes and location of portions of the plane that we hope will shed some light on the cause of this tragedy."

 

[Animalize]

AirAsia families offered half the compensation given to MH370 relatives

Initial payment offered by Allianz to families on AirAsia flight is half that made to those who lost relatives on MH370 and MH17

Anger at initial compensaton offer to bereaved AirAsia families Photo: EPA

By David Millward
8:00AM GMT 15 Jan 2015

Families of the 162 people killed on the AirAsia Flight QZ8501 have been offered initial payments half of those made to those bereaved in the last year’s Malaysia Airlines disasters.

The initial Advance Compensation Payment of 300 million Indonesian Rupiah (£15,700) is designed to help families deal with the immediate financial consequences of last month’s crash.

However, according to James Healy-Pratt, a leading aviation lawyer, the families who were on a budget carrier, have been treated less well than those on Malaysia Airlines – a traditional “flag carrier”- by the insurers, Allianz.

The company is acting on behalf of both AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines

“I have had real difficulty explaining to families that we are helping why Air Asia and its London Lead Aviation Insurer, Allianz, have offered each family precisely half of what Allianz offered families of MH370 and MH17,” he said.

“A good number of families have rejected this cut price offer of advanced compensation, and the feeling is that a low cost airline like Air Asia should not be treating the bereaved families of passengers cheaply, compared to flag carriers like Malaysian.”

Mr Healy-Pratt called on Tony Fernandes, AirAsia’s owner to step in.

“If he really cares about the Air Asia 8501 families, then he should intervene without delay and offer each family US$50,000 (£33,000)

”I really hope for the sake of the Air Asia families that low cost does not mean low compensation.”

The Montreal Convention establishes the final compensation families can expect.

Calculated in a “currency” known as Special Drawing Rights, the payment is set at 113,100 SDR – about £106,000.

However larger payments have been made after negotiation. Families bereaved in a 2007 crash involving another low cast carrier in Indonesia – Adam Air – were paid $400,000 (£264,000).

A spokesman for Allianz declined to discuss the difference between the advance compensation payments made to the families bereaved in the AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines flights.

A spokesman said: “Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty confirms that, in line with established practice and with the full support of our client AirAsia, initial payments are being offered to the relatives of all on board flight QZ8501.

“These payments are in no way final settlements; they are initial payments to provide some financial relief to all those involved at this extremely difficult time. We will agree further compensation in due course in consultation with all involved parties.”

 

[Animalize]

No evidence so far of terrorism in AirAsia crash: Indonesia investigators

Date January 19, 2015 - 8:59PM

Foreign investigators examine the tail of the AirAsia flight QZ8501 in Kuma. Photo: AFP

JAKARTA: Indonesian investigators said on Monday they had not found any evidence so far that terrorism was involved in the crash of an AirAsia passenger jet last month that killed all 162 people on board.

Andreas Hananto told Reuters that his team of 10 investigators at the National Transportation Safety Committee had found "no threats" in the cockpit voice recordings to indicate foul play during AirAsia Flight QZ8501.

The Airbus A320-200 vanished from radar screens on December 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors.

When asked if there was any evidence from the recording that terrorism was involved, Hananto said: "No. Because if there were terrorism, there would have been a threat of some kind."

"In that critical situation, the recording indicates that the pilot was busy with the handling of the plane."

Investigators said they had listened to the whole of the recording but transcribed only about half.

"We didn't hear any voice of other persons other than the pilots," said Nurcahyo Utomo, another investigator.

"We didn't hear any sounds of gunfire or explosions. For the time being, based on that, we can eliminate the possibility of terrorism."

Reuters

 

[Animalize]

AirAsia jet climbed too fast ‘then stalled’: investigators

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 20 January, 2015, 10:26pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 20 January, 2015, 10:29pm

Agence France-Presse in Jakarta

Personnel from Indonesia's national disaster agency carry recovered plane seats from AirAsia flight QZ8501 at the port of Kumai in Central Kalimantan, Borneo. Photo: AFP

An AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month with 162 people on board climbed at a faster than normal speed and then stalled, the Indonesian transport minister said on Tuesday.

Flight QZ8501 went down on December 28 in stormy weather, during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

Indonesia’s meteorological agency has said bad weather may have caused the crash, and investigators are analysing the data from the jet’s black boxes before releasing a preliminary report.

Just moments before the plane disappeared off the radar, the pilot had asked to climb to avoid the storm. He was not immediately granted permission due to heavy air traffic.

“In the final minutes, the plane climbed at a speed which was beyond normal,” Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told reporters, citing radar data.

“The plane suddenly went up at a speed above the normal limit that it was able to climb to. Then it stalled.”

Earlier at a parliamentary hearing, he said radar data showed the Airbus A320-200 appeared at one point to be climbing at a rate of 6,000 feet (1,800 metres) a minute before the crash. There were several other planes in the area at the time.

“I think it is rare even for a fighter jet to be able to climb 6,000 feet per minute,” he said. “For a commercial flight, climbing around 1,000 to 2,000 feet) is maybe already considered extraordinary, because it is not meant to climb that fast.”

Terrorism ruled out

His comments came after Indonesian investigators said they were focusing on the possibility of human error or problems with the plane having caused the crash, following an initial analysis of the cockpit voice recorder.

“We didn’t hear any other person, no explosion,” investigator Nurcahyo Utomo told reporters, explaining why terrorism had been ruled out.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Committee were now looking at the “possibility of plane damage and human factors”, he said, without giving further details.

As well as the cockpit voice recorder, the committee is also examining a wealth of information in the flight data recorder, which monitors every major part of the plane. A preliminary report will be releasd on January 28.

There was a huge international hunt for the crashed plane, involving ships from several countries including the US and China.

Indonesian search and rescue teams have so far recovered just 53 bodies from the sea.

But last week a Singapore navy ship located the jet’s main body, with the AirAsia motto “Now Everyone Can Fly” painted on the side. Rescue teams hope they will be able to find many of the passengers and crew inside.

However, divers have not succeeded in reaching the fuselage despite several attempts due to bad weather, high waves and strong underwater currents.

All but seven of those on board the flight were Indonesian. The foreign nationals were from South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France.

 

[Animalize]

20 January 2015 Last updated at 15:34

AirAsia flight QZ8501 'climbed too fast'

Investigators examine the tail of AirAsia flight QZ8501 in Kumai, 12 January Investigators examining the tail of AirAsia flight QZ8501

The AirAsia flight that crashed in the Java Sea, killing 162 people, climbed too fast before stalling, Indonesia's transport minister has said.

Ignasius Jonan told a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta that flight QZ8501 had ascended at a speed of 6,000ft (1,828m) per minute.

No passenger or fighter jet would attempt to climb so fast, he said.

There were no survivors when the plane crashed on 28 December, en route from Surabaya to Singapore.

The Airbus A320-200 is thought to have encountered difficulties from an approaching storm.

Fewer than one-third of the bodies have been retrieved from the crash area, where debris was scattered across the sea.

'Faster than a fighter'

Citing radar data, Mr Jonan said: "The plane, during the last minutes, went up faster than normal speed... then it stalled."

"I think it is rare even for a fighter jet to be able to climb 6,000ft per minute," he told a House of Representatives commission.

"The average speed of a commercial aircraft is probably between 1,000 and 2,000ft per minute because the aircraft is not designed to soar so fast."

A source familiar with the investigation's initial findings told Reuters news agency last month that radar data appeared to show flight QZ8501 had made an "unbelievably" steep climb before it crashed, possibly pushing the jet beyond its limits.

Indonesian personnel carry a coffin at Surabaya airport, 19 January

A policeman guards fuselage debris inside a storage facility at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun, 19 January

Last week, the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were found.

The fuselage of the plane, believed to hold most of the remaining bodies, has also been located and search teams are now working out how to retrieve it.

Investigators have already said it is unlikely the crash was caused by terrorism.

Black box flight recorders

'New rules'

Mr Jonan also proposed changes to improve aviation safety standards, Reuters news agency reports.

His ministry was recommending pay rises for maintenance crews and safety inspection officials, he was quoted as saying.

Applications for route permits and air transport licences would be moved online in February, he added.

The minister said a number of new rules regarding permits and safety, including health checks for flight crews and air traffic controllers, had already been implemented.

"It is a habit among airlines that they sometimes sell tickets before they have obtained a route permit," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.

"Now route permits must be obtained four months before the flight and airlines will not be allowed to sell tickets before that."

Request denied

The jet took off from Surabaya at 05:35 local time (22:35 GMT 27 December).

Shortly before it vanished, nearly halfway into the two-hour flight, its pilot contacted air traffic control to request permission to climb to 38,000ft from 32,000ft to avoid big storm clouds - a common occurrence in the area.

But heavy air traffic in the area meant he was not given permission to do so straight away.

When air traffic control tried to contact the plane again, there was no answer. The plane disappeared from radar screens shortly afterwards. It did not issue a distress signal.

A preliminary report on the crash is expected on 28 January.

 

[Animalize]

Indonesia will not make public preliminary AirAsia crash report

Initial report into crash after recovery of black box flight recorders will be restricted for 'consumption of those countries involved' and not for public view

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 21 January, 2015, 1:59pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 21 January, 2015, 6:04pm

Reuters in Jakarta

The recovery mission for the crashed AirAsia plane continues in Pangkalan Bun. Photo: EPA

Indonesian investigators may release some initial findings next week into last month’s crash of any AirAsia passenger jet that killed 162 people, but the full preliminary report will not be made public, a government official said on Wednesday.

The Airbus A320-200 vanished from radar screens on December 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia’s second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors.

[video=youtube;hVJllyaZl-Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVJllyaZl-Q[/video]

Data from radar and the aircraft’s two “black box” flight recorders is providing investigators with a clearer picture of what occurred during the final minutes of Flight QZ8501.

Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan on Tuesday told a parliamentary hearing that the plane had climbed faster than normal in its final minutes, and then stalled.

Three days after the crash a source familiar with initial investigations had told Reuters the plane appeared to have made an “unbelievably steep climb” that may have pushed it beyond its performance envelope.

Investigators are expected to submit a preliminary report to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) early next week, in line with ICAO regulations that the preliminary report must be filed within 30 days of the date of the accident.

“One month after the accident we will just make a preliminary report. No comment and no analysis,” Tatang Kurniadi, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Committee, told reporters.

“This will not be exposed to the public. This is for the consumption of those countries that are involved.”

Indonesian soldiers carry a coffin bearing the remains of 'body number 50'. Photo: AFP

The NTSC will hold a press conference on the AirAsia crash next Wednesday, but it was not clear how much will be disclosed.

The final report of the crash investigation findings, which will be made public, must be filed within a year.

Final minutes

Kurniadi reiterated that investigators have found no evidence of foul play in the disaster.

Transport Minister Jonan on Tuesday gave the first detailed information about the final minutes of Flight QZ8501 based on radar data. Data from the black box flight recorders would give a more detailed picture, Kurniadi said.

At 6.17am on December 28, three minutes after air traffic control unsuccessfully tried to make contact and asked nearby aircraft to try to locate QZ8501, the A320 turned to the left and it began to climb from its altitude of 32,000 feet [9,750 metres], Jonan told a parliamentary hearing.

The rate of the climb increased rapidly within seconds to 6,000 ft a minute, before accelerating further to 8,400 feet a minute and finally 11,100 ft. The aircraft reached 37,600 ft just 54 seconds after it began to climb before it appeared to stall.

Indonesian officials examine wreckage from AirAsia flight QZ8501. Photo: AFP

The aircraft began to fall at 6.18am, dropping 1,500 feet in the first 6 seconds before reaching a rate of descent of 7,900 feet per minute until it reached 24,000 ft, at which point it disappeared from the radar.

Pilots and industry observers told reporters that if an aircraft makes a rapid climb and start to lose speed, it would be likely to stall and suffer from a loss of control.

Based on Jonan’s data, there did not appear to have been a controlled descent in the case of QZ8501 and the aircraft appeared to have fallen rapidly before crashing into the sea, they added.

Bad weather in the area has been cited a possible factor in the crash, with the other aircraft close by at that time flying at altitudes of between 34,000 and 39,000 feet.

The investigators were looking into why this was the case, as well as QZ8501 pilots’ reaction to the storms and clouds in the area, according to a source close to the investigation.

Industry experts say that the margin for error at higher altitudes is smaller than at take-off or lower down.

While the A320’s systems usually prevent pilots from doing anything outside usual safe flight parameter, these protections can be disabled in some circumstances, handing control to the pilots and leaving it to manual flying skills.

 

[Animalize]

AirAsia jet's alarms 'screaming' before crash: investigator

AFP
By Olivia Rondonuwu January 21, 2015 1:49 PM

Warning alarms in AirAsia flight QZ8501 were "screaming" as the pilots desperately tried to stabilise the plane just before it plunged into the Java Sea last month, a crash investigator said Wednesday.

The noise of several alarms -- including one that indicated the plane was stalling -- can be heard going off in recordings from the black box in the Airbus A320-200's cockpit, the investigator told AFP, requesting anonymity.

"The warning alarms, we can say, were screaming, while in the background they (the pilot and co-pilot) were busy trying to recover," the investigator said, adding the warnings were going off "for some time".

The investigator, from Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), added that the pilots' voices were drowned out by the sound of the alarms.

The revelation came a day after Indonesian Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan said that the plane had climbed abnormally fast before stalling and plunging into the sea, as it flew on December 28 in stormy weather from Indonesia's Surabaya to Singapore with 162 people on board.

"In the final minutes, the plane climbed at a speed which was beyond normal," the minister told reporters.

Analysts said the AirAsia jet's rapid ascent had echoes of the crash of an Air France jet into the Atlantic in 2009, with the loss of 228 lives.

Air France flight 447 vanished en route from Rio to Paris at night during a storm. The Airbus A330's speed sensors were found to have malfunctioned, and the plane climbed too steeply, causing it to stall.

The investigation into AF447 found that both technical and human error were to blame.

- 'Striking similarities' -

As with the AirAsia disaster, the accident happened in an area around the equator where north and south winds meet, and thunderstorms are common.

"The similarities are pretty striking," Daniel Tsang, founder of Hong Kong-based consultancy Aspire Aviation, told AFP.

So far, just 53 bodies have been recovered following the AirAsia crash.

Divers have been struggling for a week against rough seas and strong currents to reach the plane's main body, which was spotted on the seabed and is thought to contain the bulk of the remaining passengers and crew.

The two black boxes -- the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder -- were recovered last week after a lengthy search, and investigators are examining them.

Investigators have listened to the data from the cockpit voice recorder, and are also looking at a wealth of information from the flight data recorder, which monitors every major part of the plane.

They are focusing on the possibility of human or aircraft error, after ruling out terrorism following an analysis of the cockpit voice recorder.

Committee head Tatang Kurniadi said that the preliminary report into the crash would be completed next week, a month after the accident. He said the full report would not be released publicly but the media would be told some of its contents.

There was a huge international hunt for the crashed plane, involving ships from several countries including the US and China.

All but seven of those on board the flight were Indonesian. The foreign nationals were from South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France.

 

[Animalize]

Six bodies recovered from near crashed AirAsia jet fuselage

Date January 22, 2015 - 9:32PM
Djohan Widjaja

Indonesian rescue personnel unload body bags from a military helicopter in Pangkalan Bun on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Aboard Kri Banda Aceh: Indonesian divers on Thursday found six bodies near the fuselage of an AirAsia jet that crashed last month into the Java Sea, but were unable to enter the wreckage where most of the victims are believed to be trapped, a navy official said.

"We have found six bodies, four of whom were females and two males, all adults," Supriyadi said.

He said they were found among debris, with some still strapped into their seats, not far from the jet's main section.

Rescue personnel unload body bags containing bodies recovered from the underwater wreckage of AirAsia flight QZ8501. Photo: AFP

They had been flown to Pangkalan Bun town on Borneo island, the search headquarters.

Days of rough weather and poor underwater visibility have hampered navy divers' efforts to recover bodies and lift the main part of the plane off the sea bed.

"It was very dark, visibility was very limited so our diving teams could not enter," Rear Admiral Widodo, commander of the navy's western fleet, told reporters aboard the warship KRI Banda Aceh. "However we still predict we can evacuate all the bodies from there."

Rear Admiral Widodo said rescuers expected to attach giant air bags to the fuselage to lift it to the surface by Friday.

Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather on December 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors among the 162 people on board the Airbus A320.

A multinational search and rescue operation has recovered 59 bodies so far and located both "black box" flight recorders, which will provide clues as to why the plane crashed.

The cause of AirAsia's first fatal crash is not yet known, though investigators have ruled out foul play.

Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan on Tuesday told a parliamentary hearing that radar data showed the plane had climbed faster than normal in its final minutes, and then stalled.

Three days after the crash a source familiar with initial investigations had told Reuters the plane appeared to have made an "unbelievably steep climb" that may have pushed it beyond its performance envelope.

The National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC), which is responsible for the crash investigations in Indonesia, is set to release some initial findings next week, but its full preliminary report will not be made public.

The final report on the investigation, which will be made public, must be filed within a year.

Reuters, AFP

 

[GarvenDreis]

Divers enter AirAsia fuselage for first time as six more bodies found

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 24 January, 2015, 3:42am
UPDATED : Saturday, 24 January, 2015, 3:42am

Associated Press in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia

Rescuers inspect bodybags of crash victims. Photo: EPA

For the first time, Indonesian divers were able yesterday to enter the fuselage of the AirAsia jetliner that crashed last month into the Java Sea and retrieved six bodies, an official said.

The operations chief at the National Search and Rescue Agency, Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, said the divers spotted some more bodies inside the fuselage.

"Today we have evacuated six bodies from inside the fuselage," Supriyadi said yesterday. "Some other bodies are still there but their position among other debris made it difficult for our divers."

A total of 65 bodies have now been recovered from AirAsia Flight QZ8501, which crashed on December 28 with 162 people on board while flying from Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, to Singapore. Authorities believe many of the other bodies are still inside the fuselage.

Rescuers have been struggling with strong currents and poor visibility in an attempt to lift the fuselage of the Airbus A320 and what appears to be the plane's cockpit from the seabed at a depth of 30 metres.

Bad weather is a suspected factor in the crash. The pilots asked to climb to 11,600 metres to avoid threatening clouds, but were denied permission by air traffic controllers because of heavy air traffic.

Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told the Indonesian parliament earlier this week that radar data showed the plane was climbing at an abnormally high rate, then dropped rapidly and disappeared. No distress signal was sent.

Officials of the National Transportation Safety Committee have ruled out sabotage. Investigators are analysing data from the aircraft's cockpit voice and flight data recorders with advisers from Airbus, the plane's manufacturer.

The head of the transportation safety committee, Tatang Kurniadi, said a full analysis of what went wrong with the plane could take up to a year.

 

[GarvenDreis]

More bodies recovered as effort to float AirAsia fuselage fails

Date January 24, 2015 - 11:13PM

Indonesian rescue personnel unload a coffin bearing a body recovered from the underwater wreckage of ill-fated AirAsia flight QZ8501 from a military plane on arrival at Surabaya. Photo: AFP

Indonesian salvage teams have failed to raise the fuselage of AirAsia Flight 8501 from the sea bed, but recovered four more bodies from the wreckage of the crashed jet.

The bid to raise the fuselage came a day after divers were able to enter the main section of the plane, which crashed in the Java Sea last month, for the first time.

Difficult weather conditions for the past week had stopped rescuers reaching the main part of the Airbus A320-200 since it was spotted on the seabed by a military vessel earlier this month.

"We were not successful today. The sling snapped off so the main body fell back to the sea floor," said S.B. Supriyadi, a rescue agency official, adding several bodies fell from the fuselage when the piece of wreckage sunk once again.

The operation to lift the main body will resume on Sunday.

The rescue agency official also said a sonar scan had detected an object "suspected to be the cockpit" of the plane about 500 metres away from the fuselage.

But the search teams will prioritise floating the main body before verifying the object suspected to be the cockpit, Supriyadi added.

Just after dawn on Saturday, divers began descending to the sea floor to tie floatation bags to the fuselage, said Rasyid Kacong, the navy official overseeing the lifting operation from onboard the Banda Aceh warship.

Four bodies believed to have come from inside the fuselage were retrieved as the team tried to lift the main section, bringing the total number of bodies recovered to 69, officials said.

The previous day, a jumble of wires and seats floating inside the fuselage prevented the divers from entering further to find more bodies.

"The divers said it was dark inside, the seats were floating about and the wires were like a tangled yarn," Supriyadi said.

The rescuers hope that once the fuselage is lifted, it will be easier to inspect the inside of the main section, he added.

The jet's black boxes - the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder - were recovered last week, and investigators are analysing them.

Flight QZ8501 went down on December 28 in stormy weather, during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. There were 162 people on board.

AFP