JAKARTA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's rescue team on Wednesday located the tail of the ill-fated AirAsia QZ8501 flight plane, marking a major breakthrough in the search work, while two more bodies were retrieved on the same day.
The country's search and rescue chief Bambang Soelistyo told a press briefing that divers took the photos of the wreckage and he could confirm it's the tail of the crashed plane.
The AirAsia Airbus A320-200 vanished from radar screens on Dec. 28 en route from Indonesia's second-largest city Surabaya to Singapore with 162 people on board.
Images released showed the upside down "AX" and "Air" painting on a piece of metal, which indicated it was part of the Indonesia AirAsia plane, Soelistyo said.
The finding is considered a major breakthrough in locating the black box flight data recorders, crucial for identifying the cause of the crash as plane tail is the part where the box is usually housed.
Indonesia's meteorological agency said earlier that the weather was the "triggering factor" in the crash of the plane as icing might have damaged the engine although the final cause will be released by the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) after examining the data from black box.
Soelistyo didn't mention whether hunters had detected pings from the box. The ping-emitting beacons have less than 20 days before the battery goes dead.
Chinese aviation expert Mao Yanfeng told Xinhua on Tuesday that the box may experienced internal failure or the signal was impeded by mud in the seabed.
Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Indroyono Soesilo, told another press conference in Pangkalan Bun, a town on Borneo island's Central Kalimantan Province closest to the wreckage on Tuesday that the rescue team is discussing the technical issue for recovering the black box.
The minister said six ships are already at the location, a crane with the capacity of 250 ton and buoyage are standby as well. He declined to say whether the wreckage will be raised for retrieving the black box.
AirAsia group Chief Executive Officer Tony Fernandes welcomed the finding. "We need to find all parts soon so we can find all our guests to ease the pain of our families. That still is our priority," he wrote on Tweeter.
Two more bodies were retrieved by a fisherman and a private owned barge on Wednesday, bringing the total to 41.
However, as time goes by, the possibility for finding the remaining bodies from Flight 8501 will be ever slimmer, Soelistyo said on Tuesday.
Seven large parts believed to be from the jet have also been detected, but none of these are confirmed from the plane. Meanwhile, strong currents at the rough seas continued to impede dive and search teams.
AirAsia Indonesia, 49 percent owned by the Malaysia-based AirAsia, has been suspended from flying the Surabaya-Singapore route.
BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- China is ready to send additional forces to help search the ill-fated AirAsia Flight QZ8501 according to the needs of Indonesia, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Wednesday.
"China has attached great importance to participating in the search operation and maintained close contact with Indonesia," Hong told a routine press briefing. Full story
JAKARTA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two more bodies were found and two large metal objects were located in the sea bed as recovery teams expanded the search area for the AirAsia plane that crashed more than one week ago, an Indonesian official said Tuesday.Full story
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- AirAsia has denied the rumors that it has canceled flight service to Brunei, saying the message is not true and services are still running as scheduled, Brunei's News website BruDirect.com reported on Wednesday.Full story
JAKARTA, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Recovery teams found two more bodies and located two large metal objects in the sea bed as they expanded search area for the ill-fated AirAsia flight on Tuesday.
So far, 39 bodies out of total 162 people on board have been recovered since the plane crashed into the Java Sea on Dec. 28 as the operation is hindered by unfriendly sea conditions.Full story
