Relatives held the first funeral for a victim of AirAsia
Flight QZ8501 Thursday as bad weather hampered
efforts to locate the wreckage of the plane which
crashed in the sea off Borneo with 162 aboard.
Nine bodies have so far been retrieved in the
search for the Airbus A320-200, which disappeared
from radar during a storm Sunday en route from
Indonesia’s second city of Surabaya to Singapore.
Search officials said the return of rough weather
was hindering efforts to locate the plane and the
rest of the bodies.
“The problem we faced today is unfriendly weather
conditions,” search and rescue agency chief
Bambang Soelistyo told a press conference. “The
waves were between three and four metres.”
Pointing to weather charts, he said the search
teams would persevere even though conditions
were expected to remain bad for days to come.
“From tomorrow until the fourth, with the existing
forces, calculations and tactics we have, we will
still be fighting, but I hope we can still get some
results despite having to face such conditions.”
He said a National Transport Safety Committee
team was in Pangkalun Bun, a town on Borneo
island with the nearest airstrip to the crash site.
“Tomorrow they will depart to try to find the flight
recorder,” he said.
French and Singaporean experts were also set to
join the search for the black boxes, which are
crucial to determining the cause of the crash.
- First funeral -
The first funeral took place Thursday afternoon after
one of the bodies was formally identified as a
woman named Hayati Lutfiah Hami, and was
handed over to her family in Surabaya.
After prayers at her home, the coffin was taken for
burial at a Muslim cemetery nearby, with more than
a hundred neighbours in attendance.
“I am grateful to God that my sister-in-law was
found and I hope the rescuers find the others as
soon as possible,” Agung Wahyu Darmono, 38, said.
Police said they were still working on formal
identification of one young man.
A crisis centre for identifying the victims has been
set up at a hospital in Surabaya with facilities to
store 150 bodies.
AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes said Thursday the
search appeared to be closing in on its final
location.
“I am hoping that the latest information is correct
and aircraft has been found. Please all hope
together. This is so important,” Fernandes said on
Twitter.
It was not clear what his source was and the
Indonesian naval commander heading the
international search fleet was more cautious.
“We cannot be sure,” of the exact location, First
Admiral Rasyid Kacong, commander of the warship
KRI Banda Aceh, told AFP.
“The plan is we want some divers to embark on the
Banda Aceh. Then we can go to the suspected
location,” he said.
“I can only be sure that it is a plane after we dive.
We are also looking for the black boxes.”
- Search for black boxes -
Indonesian national air safety investigator Toos
Sanitioso told AFP they “hope optimistically” to find
the plane in the near future but warned it could take
at least a week.
The plane is believed to be in relatively shallow
water of around 25-32 metres (82-105 feet).
During searches Tuesday, which retrieved
wreckage giving the first confirmation that the flight
had crashed, an air force plane saw a “shadow” on
the seabed believed to be the missing plane. All
efforts are now being concentrated there.
Debris found so far includes an exit door, an
emergency slide, several suitcases and part of an
AirAsia trolley.
Before take-off the pilot had asked for permission
to fly at a higher altitude to avoid a storm. But his
request was not approved due to other planes
above him on the popular route, according to
AirNav, Indonesia’s air traffic control.
In his last communication, Captain Iriyanto, an
experienced former air force pilot, said he wanted to
change course to avoid the menacing storm
system. Then all contact was lost, about 40 minutes
after the plane had taken off.
Of the 162 passengers and crew on board Flight
QZ8501, 155 were Indonesian, with three South
Koreans, one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one
Briton and a Frenchman — co-pilot Remi Plesel.
The plane was operated by AirAsia Indonesia, a unit
of Malaysia-based AirAsia, which previously had a
solid safety record.
The crash came at the end of a disastrous year for
Malaysian air travel.
After the disappearance of Flight MH370 in March,
en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239
passengers and crew, another Malaysia Airlines
flight — MH17 — was shot down over Ukraine in
July, killing all 298 on board.
In further bad news for AirAsia, one of its pilots
tested positive for morphine, AirAsia Indonesia
president director Sunu Widyatmoko said Thursday,
adding however that further tests were needed
since the pilot had been taking flu medicine which
could give a false result.
Published by vanguard
No comments:
Post a Comment