Indonesian searchers believe crashed AirAsia’s fuselage found

Indonesian search teams believe a sonar scan has detected the fuselage of an AirAsia airliner that crashed two weeks ago with the loss of all 162 people on board and divers were on Sunday checking the find, a senior official said. Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control during thundery weather on Dec. 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors. Searchers have also been hearing pings, believed to be from the aircraft’s black box flight recorders, near where the tail of the Airbus A320-200 aircraft tail was raised on Saturday. Supriyadi, operations coordinator for the National Search and Rescue Agency, said a sonar scan had revealed an object measuring 10 metres by four metres by 2.5 metres on the sea floor.

They suspect it is the body of the plane. There is a big possibility that the black box is near the body of the plane.

Supriyadi, operations coordinator for the National Search and Rescue Agency

Forty-eight bodies have been found in the Java Sea off Borneo and searchers are still hunting for the plane’s fuselage, which could contain more bodies. Strong winds, currents and high waves have been hampering efforts to reach other large pieces of suspected wreckage detected by sonar on the sea floor. Another official involved in the search said three ships had detected pings about 4 km from where the plane’s tail was raised on Saturday, in water about 30 metres deep. If and when the recorders are found and taken to the capital, Jakarta, for analysis, it could take up to two weeks to download data, investigators said, although the information could be accessed in as little as two days if the devices are not badly damaged.

Asia-Pacific QZ8501