Search for missing AirAsia black box recorders could ‘take a week’

Divers looking for the wreck of an AirAsia Indonesia jet off Borneo were unable to resume full-scale operations on Thursday in poor weather and heavy seas, and an air safety official said it could take a week to find the black box flight recorders. Crews were on standby to descend to a large object detected by sonar on the ocean floor, lying just 100 feet deep. Rescuers believe it is the Airbus A320-200, which was carrying 162 people when it crashed on Sunday en route from the city of Surabaya to Singapore. Toos Sanitiyoso, an air safety investigator with the National Committee for Transportation Safety, said he hoped the black box flight data and voice recorders could be found within a week, suggesting there was still doubt over the plane’s location. None of the tell-tale black box “pings” had been detected, he added.

I am hoping that the latest information is correct and aircraft has been found. Please all hope together. This is so important.

AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes on Twitter

A passenger aboard the flight became the first victim of the crash to be returned to her family Thursday—Hayati Lutfiah Hamid’s identity was confirmed by fingerprints and other means, officials said. So far, eight bodies have been recovered from waters near the suspected crash site, along with debris such a suitcase, an emergency slide and a life jacket. Investigators are working on a theory that the plane stalled as it climbed steeply to avoid a storm about 40 minutes into the flight. The plane was traveling at 32,000 feet and had asked to fly at 38,000 feet to avoid bad weather. When air traffic controllers granted permission for a rise to 34,000 feet a few minutes later, they received no response.

So far, the numbers taken by the radar are unbelievably high. This rate of climb is very high, too high. It appears to be beyond the performance envelope of the aircraft.

An anonymous source close to the probe

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