Recovery of the downed AirAsia plane and its passengers continued into its ninth day today, with crew to-date locating 34 bodies and five major parts of the A320-200 aircraft.
Flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea last week during a flight from Indonesian city Surabaya to Singapore. The plane was carrying 162 people – seven crew members and 155 passengers – when it lost contact with Indonesia’s air control 42 minutes after takeoff.
Since, relief workers have searched the rough seas for wreckage, bodies and the ‘black box’, which holds flight data that will determine the cause of the crash.
Seats & fuselage part from #AirAsia #QZ8501 recovered via @9NewsAUS pic.twitter.com/vWzf4a40ax
— Tom Podolec CTV News (@TomPodolec) January 4, 2015
So far, five major parts of the Airbus have been located close to Borneo, including a piece that is 23-metres long and crew suspect to be part of the plane’s tail.
Rough weather in the area has been hampering searchers abilities to find more pieces, however Indonesia’s search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo suspects the black box won’t be too far from the “five significant objects”.
Weather window lets AirAsia crash divers take another look http://t.co/JbVk2GpdIp pic.twitter.com/EA3i7NCekI — CBC News (@CBCNews) January 5, 2015
Although the official cause of the crash won’t be made official until investigators have reviewed flight data from the ‘black box’, an initial report on Indonesia’s meteorological website, BMKG, suggests the plane went down after it flew into storm clouds.
The website said icing from the storm clouds may have caused damage to the engine.
“Based on the available data received on the location of the aircraft’s last contact, the weather was the triggering factor behind the accident.”
BMKG
Yesterday’s AirAsia update revealed to-date only 34 remains have been located. So far, nine have been identified by the Disaster Victim Identification Police Department of Republic of Indonesia.
34 Bodies Recovered From #AirAsia Crash, Some In Seat Belts http://t.co/A3s9H1hA0Q pic.twitter.com/nwYD1wQwX9
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) January 4, 2015
Among the latest to be identified include Wismoyo Ari Prambudi (male), Jie Stevie Gunawan (female), and Juanita Limantara (female).
AirAsia Indonesia’s chief executive Sunu Widyatmoko handed over the three remains to the respective families late yesterday.
Click for here for previous updates.
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