TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

RI resumes search for AirAsia crash victims

Rescuers on Sunday resumed their search for 86 victims still missing from the AirAsia plane that crashed on Dec

Agencies (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta/Singapore
Mon, February 2, 2015 Published on Feb. 2, 2015 Published on 2015-02-02T09:13:06+07:00

Change text size

Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone

Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!

R

escuers on Sunday resumed their search for 86 victims still missing from the AirAsia plane that crashed on Dec. 28, 2014, with 162 people on board, an official said.

National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) chief Bambang Soelistyo said last week search and rescue teams were being given two days'€™ break after weeks searching in inhospitable conditions.

Sixty-eight divers from Basarnas as well as others from companies and clubs would focus on scouring the fuselage of flight QZ8501 and the seabed for remaining bodies, he said.

So far, 76 bodies have been recovered after the plane went down in the Java Sea in stormy weather during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

'€œSearch operations have resumed. Our focus today is to find bodies that could be trapped in the fuselage, or buried in mud,'€ S.B. Supriyadi, a Basarnas official who has been coordinating the hunt, told AFP.

'€œThe weather is good, and the waves were only a meter high,'€ he said, adding that six boats were in the search area.

The search mission has been expanded to the island of Sulawesi after fishermen found bodies with identity documents matching the passengers on the ill-fated flight.

The Indonesian military, which has provided the bulk of personnel and equipment for the operation, withdrew from the search Tuesday.

But Supriyadi said the current group also comprised competent divers.

'€œSkills-wise, they are as good as those from the military as they have experience helping to recover sunken boats before,'€ he added.

'€œWe hope we can still find the remaining bodies,'€ he said.

Two people familiar with the investigation earlier said that captain Iriyanto of the AirAsia jet was out of his seat conducting an unusual procedure when his co-pilot apparently lost control, and by the time he returned it was too late to save the plane, two people familiar with the investigation said.

Details emerging of the final moments of flight QZ8501 are likely to focus attention partly on maintenance, procedures and training, though officials have not ruled out any cause and stress it is too early to draw firm conclusions.

Investigators were examining maintenance records of one of the automated systems, the Flight Augmentation Computer (FAC), and the way the pilots reacted to any outage.

One person familiar with the matter said the captain had flown on the same plane with the intermittently faulty device days earlier. There was no independent confirmation of this.

After trying to reset this device, pilots pulled a circuit-breaker to cut its power, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

People familiar with the matter said it was the Indonesian captain who took this step, rather than his less experienced French co-pilot Remy Plesel, who was flying the plane.

Meanwhile, a month after the crash, AirAsia Bhd resumed its online promotions and advertising this week. AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes had imposed a moratorium on advertising after the crash of the Indonesia AirAsia plane.

Fernandes recently told Reuters Television the airline'€™s sales in Indonesia were slowly recovering after the crash, which was the first involving an AirAsia plane and which cast a spotlight on the patchy safety record of Indonesian airlines.

'€œWe were 50 percent behind where we were after the incident,'€ Fernandes said from Davos. '€œWe are now about 12 percent behind and it'€™s fast recovering.'€

Indonesia AirAsia, in which AirAsia has a 49 percent stake, declined to give details about passenger numbers for January or December.

One of its competitors, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, said it had seen an increase in passenger numbers

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.

Share options

Quickly share this news with your network—keep everyone informed with just a single click!

Change text size options

Customize your reading experience by adjusting the text size to small, medium, or large—find what’s most comfortable for you.

Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone

Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!

Continue in the app

Get the best experience—faster access, exclusive features, and a seamless way to stay updated.