AirAsia QZ8501: Search teams 'find two large objects'
Search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo said a remotely operated underwater vehicle was being lowered to take pictures.However, bad weather and heavy seas continue to hamper operations.
The jet disappeared with 162 people on board while flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore last Sunday.
So far 30 bodies have been recovered in the search. No survivors have been found and the main sections of the Airbus A320 have not been retrieved.
Most bodies are thought to have been trapped in the plane's fuselage.
'Confident'
Mr Soelistyo said on Saturday that the large objects had been detected by sonar from an Indonesian navy ship.
"We found oil slicks and huge objects at 23:40 (16:40 GMT) last night. I am confident these are parts of the missing AirAsia plane that we are looking for," he said.
He said the larger of the objects was 10 metres by five (32ft by 16ft) but that strong currents made operating the underwater vehicle difficult.
"As I speak we are lowering an ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) to get an actual picture of the objects detected on the sea floor. All are at the depth of 30 metres."
The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from the forward operating base in Pangkalan Bun that it seems this could be the breakthrough search teams have been hoping for.
A flotilla of ships, including two from the US navy, are converging on the site where the objects were located and preparing to put divers into the water.
The cause of the crash is not yet known. Specialist equipment has arrived to the search for the plane's "black box" flight recorders, though officials say no signals have been picked up yet.
Numbered coffins
In another development, it has emerged that AirAsia did not have official permission to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on Sunday - the day of the crash - but was licensed on four other days of the week.
The Indonesian authorities are suspending the company's flights on this route with immediate effect pending an investigation, a transport ministry statement said.
Officials have said the plane was travelling at 32,000ft when it requested to climb to 38,000ft to avoid bad weather.
Some investigators are reported to believe that the plane may have gone into an aerodynamic stall as the pilot climbed steeply.
There were 137 adult passengers, 17 children and one infant, along with two pilots and five crew, on the plane - the majority Indonesian.
Four people have been identified so far: Hayati Lutfiah Hamid, Grayson Herbert Linaksita, Kevin Alexander Soetjipto and Khairunisa Haidar Fauzi.
After bodies are recovered from the sea they are transported in numbered coffins for identification in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city.
AirAsia previously had an excellent safety record, with no fatal accidents involving its aircraft.
AirAsia Flight QZ8501: Carrier confirms Surabaya-Singapore route suspended; Indonesia says plane was flying on unauthorised schedule
Published on Jan 3, 2015 4:05 PM
JAKARTA - Indonesia Air Asia confirmed that its Surabaya-Singapore route has been suspended by Indonesia's transport ministry but said it would not comment on the matter until the government completes its investigation.
"We are aware the government is doing evaluation process to investigate. In that regard, AirAsia management would fully cooperate with the government in the evaluation,'' said Mr Sunu Widyatmoko, President Director of AirAsia Indonesia.
"We, the management of AirAsia, would not make any comment or statement in that period of the evaluation process until the evaluation report is completed."
The transport ministry said earlier that AirAsia flight QZ8501 that went missing last Sunday was flying on an unauthorised schedule. The flight time had not been cleared by officials, said director-general of air transport Djoko Murjatmodjo.
"It violated the route permit given, the schedule given, that's the problem," he told AFP. "AirAsia's permit for the route has been frozen because it violated the route permit given."
The ministry said "customers who have booked AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore tickets should be compensated with other airline tickets as per the existing regulation."
A statement from transport ministry spokesman J.A. Barata said AirAsia was not permitted to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on Sundays and had not asked to change its schedule.
"We are aware the government is doing evaluation process to investigate. In that regard, AirAsia management would fully cooperate with the government in the evaluation,'' said Mr Sunu Widyatmoko, President Director of AirAsia Indonesia.
"We, the management of AirAsia, would not make any comment or statement in that period of the evaluation process until the evaluation report is completed."
The transport ministry said earlier that AirAsia flight QZ8501 that went missing last Sunday was flying on an unauthorised schedule. The flight time had not been cleared by officials, said director-general of air transport Djoko Murjatmodjo.
"It violated the route permit given, the schedule given, that's the problem," he told AFP. "AirAsia's permit for the route has been frozen because it violated the route permit given."
The ministry said "customers who have booked AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore tickets should be compensated with other airline tickets as per the existing regulation."
A statement from transport ministry spokesman J.A. Barata said AirAsia was not permitted to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on Sundays and had not asked to change its schedule.
AirAsia QZ8501: Plane crash blamed on weather
Bad weather was the biggest factor in the crash of AirAsia flight QZ8501, the Indonesian weather agency believes.
The BMKG agency said initial analysis suggested icy conditions in the air had caused the engine to stall.
The Airbus A320 vanished with 162 people aboard en route from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore last Sunday.
The discovery of four large objects believed to be plane debris has raised hopes of finding the fuselage, where most bodies are believed to be trapped.
Just 30 bodies had been recovered from the Java Sea as of Saturday morning.
Russian aid workers arrived by Be-200
BMKG found conditions at the time of the plane's disappearance suggested it had probably flown into a storm and experienced extremely icy conditions.
"From our data it looks like the last location of the plane had very bad weather and it was the biggest factor behind the crash," said Edvin Aldrian, head of research at BMKG.
"These icy conditions can stall the engines of the plane and freeze and damage the planes machinery," he added.
Officials have said the plane was travelling at 32,000ft when the pilot's last communication was a request to climb to 38,000ft to avoid bad weather.
AirAsia flight QZ8501: 4 major parts of plane spotted as Indonesia probes AirAsia flight routes
Published on Jan 3, 2015 8:50 PM
PANGKALAN BUN/JAKARTA - Indonesia search and rescue teams hunting for the wreck of an AirAsia passenger jet have located four large objects in the Java Sea, agency chief Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo told reporters on Saturday.
“We’ve found four big parts from the plane we’re looking for,” Mr Soelistyo told reporters in Jakarta.
The breakthrough came as authorities said that Indonesia AirAsia had violated the terms of its licence for the Surabaya to Singapore route by flying on a Sunday, the day the Airbus A320-200 plunged into the Java Sea, and announced they would investigate the carrier’s other schedules.
One large object was pinpointed by a ship searching during the night, Mr Soelistyo said, and three more, the largest of which was around 18 metres long, were located on Saturday.
High waves continued to hamper the search effort on Saturday, but the teams placed high hopes on Sunday as the tides were forecast to be between 1.5m and 2m, Mr Soelistyo added.
This comes as the ministry said flight QZ8501 was on an unauthorised flight schedule because the airline was only permitted to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Flight QZ8501 took off last Sunday and the airline had not sought permission to change its schedule prior to the flight.
“We are going to investigate all AirAsia flight schedules,” said Djoko Muratmodjo, acting general-director for air navigation in the transport ministry. “Hopefully we can start on next Monday. We won’t focus on licences, just schedules.”
“It might be possible to revoke AirAsia’s licence in Indonesia,” Muratmodjo added.
The transport ministry suspended AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore route on Friday.
"AirAsia's permit for the route has been frozen because it violated the route permit given," he said.
The airline said it would cooperate fully with the investigation and would not comment on the matter till the investigation is completed.
The ministry said "customers who have booked AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore tickets should be compensated with other airline tickets as per the existing regulation."
Meanwhile, in response to media queries, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said on January 3 that approval had been given for the Surabaya-Singapore sector based on the air rights that were available under the air services deal between both countries and available landing slots at Changi Airport.
On the Singapore side, the application was made by Indonesia AirAsia to operate a daily flight between Surabaya and Singapore for the period from Oct 26, 2014, to March 28, 2015.
The CAAS said: "These daily flights were approved as there were available air traffic rights under the bilateral air services agreement and the slots at Changi Airport were available."
The airline was operating the flight four times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, CAAS said
“We’ve found four big parts from the plane we’re looking for,” Mr Soelistyo told reporters in Jakarta.
The breakthrough came as authorities said that Indonesia AirAsia had violated the terms of its licence for the Surabaya to Singapore route by flying on a Sunday, the day the Airbus A320-200 plunged into the Java Sea, and announced they would investigate the carrier’s other schedules.
One large object was pinpointed by a ship searching during the night, Mr Soelistyo said, and three more, the largest of which was around 18 metres long, were located on Saturday.
High waves continued to hamper the search effort on Saturday, but the teams placed high hopes on Sunday as the tides were forecast to be between 1.5m and 2m, Mr Soelistyo added.
This comes as the ministry said flight QZ8501 was on an unauthorised flight schedule because the airline was only permitted to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Flight QZ8501 took off last Sunday and the airline had not sought permission to change its schedule prior to the flight.
“We are going to investigate all AirAsia flight schedules,” said Djoko Muratmodjo, acting general-director for air navigation in the transport ministry. “Hopefully we can start on next Monday. We won’t focus on licences, just schedules.”
“It might be possible to revoke AirAsia’s licence in Indonesia,” Muratmodjo added.
The transport ministry suspended AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore route on Friday.
"AirAsia's permit for the route has been frozen because it violated the route permit given," he said.
The airline said it would cooperate fully with the investigation and would not comment on the matter till the investigation is completed.
The ministry said "customers who have booked AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore tickets should be compensated with other airline tickets as per the existing regulation."
Meanwhile, in response to media queries, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said on January 3 that approval had been given for the Surabaya-Singapore sector based on the air rights that were available under the air services deal between both countries and available landing slots at Changi Airport.
On the Singapore side, the application was made by Indonesia AirAsia to operate a daily flight between Surabaya and Singapore for the period from Oct 26, 2014, to March 28, 2015.
The CAAS said: "These daily flights were approved as there were available air traffic rights under the bilateral air services agreement and the slots at Changi Airport were available."
The airline was operating the flight four times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, CAAS said
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