News Digest

First attempt to float AirAsia fuselage fails as wreckage severs cable

An operation by Indonesian salvage teams to raise the fuselage of AirAsia Flight 8501 from the sea bed on Saturday will be reattempted after the sharp edges of wreck severed a rope connecting a flotation balloon to the fuselage. Divers will have to pad the sharp edges with rubber material and try again, Navy Rear Admiral Widodo told the BBC. The fuselage was lifted to about 7 metres from the surface before some of the balloons failed. The latest bid came a day after divers were able to enter the main section of the jet, which crashed in the Java Sea last month, for the first time.

We now need additional balloons.

Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, the operations chief at the National Search and Rescue Agency

Difficult weather conditions for the past week had stopped rescuers reaching the main part of the Airbus A320-200 since it was spotted on the seabed by a military vessel earlier this month. Four bodies believed to have come from inside the fuselage were retrieved as the team tried to lift the main section, bringing the total bodies recovered to 69, officials said. The previous day, a jumble of wires and seats floating inside the fuselage prevented the divers from entering further to find more bodies.