Multinational black box search team heading for AirAsia crash site

Four bodies arrived at the East Java police district’s Bhayangkara hospital at 12.30pm local time. In all, there are six bodies recovered from AirAsia flight QZ8501 at the hospital for identification purposes. Families in the new crisis centre here are waiting to identify the bodies. None have officially been identified so far. — ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

PANGKALAN BUN/JAKARTA – A specialist multinational team armed with acoustic equipment will arrive at the suspected crash site of the sunken Indonesia AirAsia jet off Borneo on Friday, bolstering the search for the plane’s black box flight recorders.

Bad weather has hampered the search, keeping divers from looking for the wreck of the Airbus A320-200, which was carrying 162 people when it crashed on Sunday en route from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

France’s BEA crash investigation agency said late Thursday a ship with two hydrophones, or underwater acoustic detection devices, was due to arrive at the scene early on Friday with French, Singaporean and Indonesian experts aboard. BEA assists in the investigation of any air crash involving an Airbus aircraft because the company is France-based.

The Indonesian-led search for the wreck of Flight QZ8501 is centered in the northern Java Sea, close to the Karimata Strait, where search teams have recovered bodies and pieces of the plane.

Previous reports of a sonar image showing the plane body in the water have not been confirmed, officials said.

At least 10 bodies have so far been recovered, but choppy waters posed a challenge for personnel searching for victims’ remains.

“We will not leave our brothers and sisters down there, whatever the conditions,” Bambang Soelistyo of Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) said at a news conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

The plane had gone missing on Dec 28, 2014, and debris were found three days later in the waters south of Kalimantan region. Indonesia officially announced the mishap of the Airbus aircraft soon enough and have commenced recovery operations.

He said strong currents and tides of up to three meters hampered recovery operations carried out by more than 90 vessels, aircraft and helicopters over an area of 13,000 square km. Vessels from Singapore, Malaysia and the United States assisted in the efforts, he said, adding that Singapore’s equipment to detect underwater material has also arrived.

Singapore’s Autonomous Underwater Vehicle was flown in on Thursday, while the navy’s MV Swift Rescue joined its three other vessels to conduct search operations in the area, a statement by the Ministry of Defense said. Another countermeasure vessel, the RSS Kallang, will reach the sea area tomorrow, the statement added.

Defense minister Ng Eng Hen also said that Singapore navy on board RSS Valour had recovered some pieces of equipment and debris that were from QZ8501. “The search effort continues and I know our servicemen and women are putting in their best efforts,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

Of the nine bodies recovered so far, eight have been transported to Surabaya, while one was onboard a rescue vessel and will soon be transported ashore.

Among the debris recovered were two black bags, one grey suitcase and a few pieces of metal, but priority remains locating the biggest chunk of fuselage.

Indonesian air safety official earlier said it could take a week to find the black box flight recorders of missing flight, as divers looking for the wreckage of the jet were unable to resume full-scale operations on Thursday due to poor weather and heavy seas.

Toos Sanitiyoso, an air safety investigator with the National Committee for Transportation Safety, said he hoped the black box flight data and voice recorders could be found within a week, suggesting there was still doubt over the plane’s location.

“The main thing is to find the main area of the wreckage and then the black box,” he told reporters. None of the tell-tale black box “pings” had been detected, he said.

Investigators are working on a theory that the plane went into a stall as it climbed steeply to avoid a storm about 40 minutes into the flight. Experts also said that initial information point to the possibility that the aircraft may have managed to land on sea but could have been overcome by high seas, AFP reported.

Dive crews were on standby to descend to a large object detected by sonar on the ocean floor, lying just 30-50 meters deep, which rescuers believe is the Airbus A320-200, which was carrying 162 people when it disappeared on Sunday en route from the city of Surabaya to Singapore.

Of the six bodies in East Java police district’s Bhayangkara hospital, one has been identified so far, that of Hayati Lutfiah Hamid, by using by finger prints and Identification card. Her burial took place later attended by family member and relatives. Other bodies were taken in numbered coffins to Surabaya, where relatives of the victims had gathered, for identification.

Authorities have been collecting DNA from relatives to help identify the bodies.

“We are asking universities to work with us – from the whole country,” said Anton Castilani, executive director at Indonesia’s disaster victims identification committee.