Tail of crashed AirAsia plane found
Crashed jet’sblack boxesw ou ld be fou nd in tailarea.
Searchers managed to get a photograph of the debris — nearly 6 miles from where Flight 8 501lost contact,
PANGKALAN BUN, INDONESIA
Divers and an — unmanned under water vehicle o n Wednesday sp o tted the tail o f the AirAsia p lane that crashed into the Java Sea with 162 p eo p le o n bo ard, an imp o rtant )inding because the jet’s all-imp o rtant black bo xes are lo cated in that p art o f the aircraft.
Po werful currents and murky waterco ntinue to hinderthe o p eratio n, but searchers managed to get a p ho to grap ho f the debris — nearly 6 miles fro m where Flight 8 50 1 lo st co ntact Dec. 28 — afterit was detected by an Indo - nesian survey ship , Natio nal Search and Rescue chief H enry Bambang So - elistyo to ld rep o rters.
One released image ap - p eared to sho w an up - side do wn “A” p ainted on a piece o f metal, while ano thergrainy sho t dep icted so me mechanical p arts.
“To day we successfully disco vered the p art o f the p lane that became the main aim since yesterday,” So elistyo said. “I can ensure that this is p art o f the tail with the AirAsia mark o n it.”
To ny Fernendes, AirAsia’s chief executive o f)icer, welco med the news.
If it is the right p art o f the tail sectio n, he tweeted, then the co ckp it vo ice and flight data reco rders, o rblack bo xes, “sho uld be there.”
H e said the airline’s p rio rity still is to reco ver all the bo dies “to ease the pain of ourfamilies.”
The carrier, meanwhile, said families o f tho se killed wo uld be co mp ensated in acco rdance with Indo nesian laws.
Each will receive $10 0 ,0 0 0 , Sunu Widyatmo ko , p resident o f AirAsia Indo nesia, to ld rep o rters in Surabaya.
So far, 40 co rp ses have been fo und, including an additio nal o ne anno unced Wednesday, but time is running o ut.
At two weeks, mo st co rp ses will sink, said Anto n Castilani, head o f Indo nesia’s disaster-identification ) victim unit, and there are already signs o f serio us deco mp o sitio n. Of)icials are ho p eful many o f the mo re than 122 bo dies still unacco unted fo rwill be fo und inside the fuselage, which is believed to be lying near the tail.
The Airbus A320 went do wn halfway thro ugh a two -ho urflight between Indo nesia’s seco nd-largest city o f Surabaya and Singap o re, killing everyo ne o n bo ard. It is no t clearwhat caused the crash, but bad weatheris believed to be a co ntributing facto r.
Just befo re lo sing co ntact, the p ilo t to ld air traf)ic co ntro l he was ap p ro aching threatening clo uds, but was denied p ermissio n to climb to a higheraltitude because o f heavy airtraf)ic. No distress signal was issued.
Finding the black bo xes will be key to the investigatio n. They p ro vide essential info rmatio n abo ut the p lane alo ng with )inal co nversatio ns between the cap tain and co -p ilo t. The p ing-emitting beaco ns still have abo ut 20 days befo re theirbatteries go dead, but high waves had p revented the dep lo yment o f ship s that drag fo r“p ing” lo cato rs.
So nar-equip p ed ship s invo lved in the massive internatio nal hunt have identi)ied what they believe to be the fuselage o f the p lane in recent days. Five o therbig o bjects have been fo und o n the flo o ro f the o cean, tho ugh no visual co n)irmatio n has been o btained yet. Smallerp ieces o f the p lane, such as seats and an emergency do o r, have been co llected fro m the surface.