After nearly a week of searching for the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501, rescue teams battling monsoon rains had their most successful day yet on Friday, more than tripling the number of bodies pulled from the Java Sea so far. An Indonesian Navy official said some of the dead were still strapped to their seats.
Of the 30 corpses recovered in total, 21 were found on Friday, many of them by a U.S. Navy ship, according to officials.
The Airbus A320 carrying 162 passengers and crew went down on Sunday, halfway into a flight from Surabaya to Singapore. Minutes before losing contact, the pilot told air traffic control he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic.
It remains unclear what caused it to plunge into the sea.
Col. Yayan Sofiyan, commander of the warship Bung Tomo, told MetroTV five bodies pulled in by his crew were still fastened in their seats.
Indonesian search and rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said he knew of only two victims found in their seats, but said a total of 30 bodies have been recovered.
Rescue teams hope many of those on board are still within the fuselage, which has not been located.
Several countries involved in the massive effort are using sophisticated sonar equipment and metal detectors to scour the relatively shallow ocean floor for the wreckage and the plane’s black boxes.
More ships were deployed on Friday with high-end equipment to locate the fuselage of doomed AirAsia jet even as the weather, which has hindered the search the last several days, remained a worry.
The “most probable area” for search of the missing AirAsia flight has been demarcated, Royal Malaysian Navy Chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar said on Friday.
The Munich-based reinsurance giant said on Monday that its subsidiary Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty U.K. is the lead insurer for AirAsia, including for liability insurance.
Sunu Widyatmoko, Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia Indonesia said: “We are sorry to be here today under these tragic circumstances. We would like to extend our sincere sympathies to the family and friends of those on board QZ8501. Our sympathies also go out to the families of our dear colleagues." >Read more…
The disappearance of an AirAsia passenger jet soon after takeoff inevitably brings back memories of the mystery behind Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared nearly 10 months ago and is yet to be found. >Read more…
