Severe weather, high seas and murky water continued to hamper the search for the wreckage and flight recorders from AirAsia Flight QZ8501 on Monday, even as the number of bodies recovered reached 37 and searchers detected yet another large piece of the Airbus A320’s structure on the ocean bottom, some 100 feet below the surface.
Jakarta air traffic control lost contact with the Airbus A320-200 on the morning of December 28 during a scheduled flight between Surabaya, Indonesia, and Singapore, soon after pilots asked to change course and increase altitude in an effort to avoid bad weather. The flight took off from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya at 5:35 a.m. carrying 155 passengers and seven crewmembers.
Search crews have now located five large pieces of the airplane on the sea floor, but divers from Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) have yet to locate the part of the airplane thought to contain the flight data and voice recorders. Entering the ninth day of the mission on Monday morning, the search operation expanded to the east part of the Java Sea in response to underwater current forecasts. Along with the victims’ remains, recovery teams have found floating debris such as the emergency exit window, luggage, passenger seats and survival kits.
U.S. Navy divers assisting in the search have deployed side-scan sonar gear to map the sea floor and capture images. On Sunday the U.S. Navy combat ship USS Fort Worth joined the guided missile destroyer USS Sampson in the Java Sea to assist in the Indonesian-led search effort. Other countries involved now include China, Russia, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia and Singapore. Meanwhile, a team of technical experts from France’s Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA) and Airbus have joined the investigation, and BEA personnel have participated in underwater searches. During the morning of January 2, a ship took BEA investigators to the search area, with detection equipment including hydrophones, in an effort to locate the acoustic beacons from the two flight recorders.
Separately, according to Indonesian Ministry of Transport, AirAsia flew the Surabaya-Singapore route on December 28 without an operating license, prompting a full investigation by the authority and its suspension of the airline’s service between the two cities. The airline had obtained permission from Indonesia to fly the route four days a week, however, and the Singaporean CAA had granted AirAsia Indonesia approval for daily service between the cities. AirAsia Indonesia operates as a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Air Asia Group, founded by CEO Tony Fernandes in 2001.